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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984083">A New Teacher</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasilver/pseuds/Seasilver'>Seasilver</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Unfinished Works [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood &amp; Manga, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aged-Up Character(s), BAMF Alphonse Elric, BAMF Edward Elric, Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge Being an Asshole, Edward still has his alchemy, F/M, Restored Alphonse Elric, alphonse is chaotic but in his own way, edward has kids, edward is chaotic, two yearish after ending, umbridge is an idiot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:14:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>51,402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984083</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasilver/pseuds/Seasilver</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Its been three years since Edward finally restored his brothers body. He's a colonel for the military, working under Mustang. He has two wonderful kids with Winry and is just living life. Life is good.</p><p>Until he gets a new mission to TEACH at a school of all things, TEACH. Edward doesn't want to do it, so he's going to do what he always does. </p><p>He's gonna fuck shit up</p><p>Based on the popularity, I guess I will continue this ^_^</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Unfinished Works [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126058</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>323</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>finished</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Another Mission</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“No! No! I haven’t even gone home! Alphonse just got back, he’s still recovering! You can’t send me on a mission now! I didn’t even have the chance to say hi to my kids before I had to drag my ass here!” The desk vibrated as Edward slammed his palms onto the desk in frustration. He could hardly believe what Mustang was telling him and he was certainly not happy about it. Mustang took a deep breath and paused for a moment, he seemed to ask a higher power for the patience and strength to deal with the stubborn soldier in front of him. Outside of the office, Hawkeye could be seen sighing in slight defeat, she honestly didn’t know what to expect from the young man other than his current reaction.</p><p>“Fu- “</p><p>“No! Mustang, I refuse to go on this mission!” Mustang sat there, his patience starting to ebb away at the interruptions that Edward is making him go through. His eyebrow started to twitch in slight frustration at this. Whereas he could deal with the usual rude manner of Edward, he did not appreciate being interrupted repeatedly. He stared at the furious face of Edward Elric as he bluntly voiced the opposition of his newly assigned mission.</p><p>“Listen Fullme- “</p><p>“No, I will not listen, there is no way in hell I am going on a mission now! I refuse to go anywhere until Alphonse is healed.” Edward was grasping at straws, trying to find another reason to stay home.</p><p>“Edward.” Edward stopped his rant at Mustang dropping ranks and titles and calling by his name. He stood back up straight and crossed his arms across his chest as he growled out his response, giving Mustang a chance to explain himself for the first time in a while. The brothers had just returned from their latest mission and Alphonse ended up getting hurt during the mission. It wasn’t anything major but it was still enough to make Edward overprotective of his brother once again. Not to mention that Edward hadn’t seen his wife and kids for over a month and that was a good motivator to argue his assignment.</p><p>“What?” Mustang held eye contact with the blonde alchemist, both parties taking in each other’s appearance. Whereas Edward looked slightly tired, most likely from staying up with his brother, Mustang looked haggard and exhausted with his workload. The two alchemists had succeeded with their coup of Führer King Bradley a little bit less than three years ago, and with Mustang and Major General Armstrong declining the position, the next choice was Grumman, who gladly took the position. (He didn’t take the paperwork with the same enthusiasm though). Unfortunately for the newly promoted Mustang, he is still struggling with the workload while also trying to help get his country back onto its feet by creating more diplomatic ties with other countries. The side effects of such work were starting to affect the appearance of Mustang, instead of his prim and perfect demeanor, it was replaced by eye bags and stubble. During those three years, Edward had finally married Winry and had two children of their own. Edward had been promoted to colonel as well. Mustang held eye contact for a couple of seconds before speaking his thoughts.</p><p> “I know Alphonse hasn’t recovered from the incident in the south, and I know you want to see your family but, I need you to do this mission, with the bordering countries still uncertain about Gruumans rule, we are going to need the support of Great Britain.” They both stood there silently in their respective places. Edward unconsciously gripped his automail arm. The same arm he had given up once again for his little brother on two different occasions.</p><p>The latest occasion was to retrieve his little brother’s body, the body that he had attempted to get in exchange for his alchemic gate. Fortunately for the Peoples Alchemist, Truth, the god of alchemy, decided to give the brothers a break for once and gave Alphonse's body back in exchange for Edwards's arm. Truth felt like the brothers had done him a favor in returning The Dwarf in a Flask to him and decided to give him a discount. Allowing Edward to keep his alchemy and fulfill his promise to his younger brother at the price of his arm. Edward stared at Mustang, his anger ebbing away as he realized that his superior officer was right, that if Edward didn’t want all of his efforts to go down the drain, he would have to (unfortunately) listen to him.</p><p>“We need this political allegiance with Great Britain, we can’t afford to pass this up.” Mustang was looking at Edward with slightly pleading eyes, but just slightly, only those close to him would be able to tell his true emotions while looking at his partially impassive face. Edward was slightly taken aback by this, he had never seen Mustang looking at him like this. Although his urge to antagonize the older man reared its face, he pushed it down, deciding that this was most likely not the time for such antics.</p><p>“But why me? I’m sure there are more qualified alchemists for this? We both know that I’m not exactly the definition of diplomatic.” Mustang sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He took the file that was in front of him and held it out to Edward, who grabbed it hesitantly with his gloved hand, the paper wrinkling slightly under the slightly excessive pressure his automail applied.</p><p>“ well I do agree that a rock can be more diplomatic than you,” Mustang ignored the glare he got for that comment,” I need you to do this for me, Edward, you’re the only one I trust with this mission. As soon as Alphonse is well enough, I swear I will send him to you. Besides, Alphonse is going to need to keep an eye on you.” Edward glared at Mustang for his small jab at his behavior. Edward rubbed his eyes with his left hand and sighed tiredly before flipping open the mission report.</p><p>“And here I thought I would be able to settle down after all of this time.” Mustang sighed in relief and visibly relaxed as the young man started to skim through the mission report to get a general idea of what he should prepare for. It didn’t take long for a smug smile to appear on Mustang's face as he started to antagonize Edward.</p><p>“Did you think that you would be able to settle down? Were you even considering retiring from the military Colonel Edward Elric?” His voice had a teasing tone as he knew full well that Edward did not want to be promoted to Colonel at all. But he also knew that Edward wasn’t planning to leave the military so he could continue his research. Edward scowled at the mention of his rank but decided to ignore it, deciding that as long as it wasn’t a comment about his height, he could let it pass (not without some kind of retort).</p><p>“Oh, shut up, anyway, what’s the mission? Why is it so important?” Mustang frowned as he collapsed into his chair with a sigh, Edward took this as a sign that they were going to forget about ranks for now and sat on the edge of his desk with one leg still planted on the ground. The two males had grown closer after everything went down and this was now the norm between the two of them, which doesn’t mean they don’t have their occasional bouts now and then. Mustang sat there in his chair for a little bit before answering Edwards’s question.</p><p>“I’m not sure, they only requested for a well-rounded state alchemist that was experienced in combat and as you know, that only leaves you. You’re the only state alchemist that has a general knowledge of alchemy that is also a combatant unit.” Edward rose an eyebrow at this. Although the gate had given Edward a vast amount of alchemic information, Mustang had seen the gate too and even though his eyesight was taken away, Dr. Marcoh already restored it with the philosopher stone. Nevertheless, Mustang should also have a general knowledge of all if not most fields of alchemy.</p><p>“What about you? I know you can’t go being a General and all, but don’t you have a well-rounded knowledge of alchemy now that you’ve seen the gate?” He thought about it and smirked. It didn’t take long for Mustang to appreciate the new information that was now imprinted into his mind along with the ability to perform transmutations without arrays.</p><p>“I do have to say it is more convenient to be able to do almost all types of alchemy, without a circle to boot, but it seems like I only know the basics of each field, I don’t know enough to be able to teach it. Unlike you, that virtually knows the ins and outs of almost every field in alchemy.” Edward nodded his head in understanding, Edward did give up an entire leg while Mustang had given up his eyesight, although one would think the ability to see was worth more than the ability to walk. Edward looked at the file in his hands and started to look through it once more and sure enough, there was only enough information to figure out what type of soldier they wanted. Edward's eyes focused in on a line that said that there should have been two black notebooks, one for the soldier and one for the superior included, along with a third one.</p><p>“Hey Mustang, it says here that I’m supposed to get a small black notebook while you keep the other one?” Edward looked up from the file and as Edward was asking Mustang. Mustang widened his eyes slightly as he remembered the peculiar books that were part of the report. Mustang opened one of his drawers and took out the pair of books along with the older and tattered book. The twin notebooks were small and black, while the third one was bigger and more worn out. Edward took the small notebook that Mustang was holding out to him</p><p>“You’re supposed to keep this on your person at all times while I do the same, although I don’t know why, they were oddly specific in this part, I don’t know the purpose of keeping it with us at all times through. It’s not like it’s going to benefit them if we are hundreds of miles away. On the side note, you did bring your suitcase as I asked?”</p><p>“Yeah, I got everything.” Edward picked up his suitcase while pocketing the book and showed it to him. Although had he known he was going to get tied into another mission, he would have left it at home. Mustang eyed it for a little bit before looking back at Edward, a stern look was already set on his face.</p><p>“Is your uniform in there?” Edward groaned out loud at the thought of that abhorred uniform. In all of his years in the military, Edward rarely wore that thing, and only to find out that he was going to have to wear it periodically during his mission made Edward want to scream in frustration and anger. If there was one thing Edward was not willing to do, it was to wear that blue monstrosity.</p><p>“Yes, it is” Mustang’s eyes flickered over to the suitcase that was in Edwards’s hands one more time and back to Edwards's face, doubt was plastered onto Mustang's face. Edward's opinion on the uniform was widely known and the antics Edward has done just to avoid wearing it had at one time traveled all around the base. Mustang had plenty of reason to doubt the stubborn (extremely stubborn) young man</p><p>“Show me.” Edward scoffed at his demand. Mustang frown at him but said nothing as he was still waiting for Edward to set down his suitcase and open it up to show that he did indeed have his military-issued uniform.</p><p>“You trust me with a diplomatic mission but you don’t trust me with packing my uniform?” Mustang smirked at his statement and Edward frowning face. Mustang leaned backward in his chair and crossed his arms while looking straight at Edward.</p><p>“Of course not, you have a habit of not listening to orders.” Despite his comment, his tone was light and playful, a tone he took on when he wanted to make Edward frustrated or make fun of said alchemist. Edward was going to respond to his comment when he noticed the older book, which Mustang still had clasped in his hand, started to glow. Mustang noticed his stare and he turned to see what exactly was going on. Based on Edwards’s extensive knowledge of paper and leather, it shouldn’t glow like that.</p><p>“What the hell.” Mustangs whisper quickly traveled across the room as they both stared at the book in silence. Edward looked back up at Mustang, their mouths were hanging open in surprise, but before either, one of them could say anything, and they both respectively felt a harsh pull from their stomachs and struggled to keep the contents in their stomach as they fell onto the ground. Edward heard the distinct thud of another body hitting the ground. Edward bit his tongue to hold back his cry of pain as he felt his suitcase fall onto his still bruised ribs.</p><p><em>“Who are you!?”</em> The familiar sound of snapping fingers and the rush of air and heat told Edward that he needed to hurry up and get onto his feet to assess the situation. Edward quickly pushed his suitcase off of his chest and stood up ready to fight whoever Mustang was talking to. The sounds of whispering filled the room as Edward stood up and took his stance next to Mustang, who had already pulled on his ignition gloves in preparation for a confrontation with this strange group of people. The first thing the two of them noticed was the increase in occupants and the change in environment. Where they were previously in the well-lit, solitary office of Mustang, they were now in a dim room with various people standing around the walls. There was a tall old man in light blue clothes (is that a dress?) with a smaller, slightly younger woman standing next to him. She had her hair tied up into a tight bun and the scowl on her face gave her a menacing look. Next to her was a short plump woman with red hair and what seemed to be her taller husband standing next to her. On the opposite wall, there was a man with dirty blond hair with eyes of the same color with a sallow face. Next to him was another man with dark hair and eyes. And next to him was another lady, she looked to be a little bit older than Edward but had odd pink hair. There was one thing in common, they were all pointing sticks at the two Amestrians.</p><p><em>“I’ll ask one more time, where are we?”</em> Mustang’s voice showed that he meant business. Edward felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he felt someone behind him, watching him, watching them. Edward pulled a throwing knife from the small of his back and he quickly turned around, throwing the knife at where the person was in the process. The person was somewhat startled and Edward took this chance to use alchemy to pin everyone to the walls with wooden hands. Shouts and yelps filled the room as giant wooden hands erupted from the floor and pinned everyone. Before Edward stood back up, he created a spear from the floor and ignored everyone’s look of horror. The two alchemists stood back to back, Mustang was facing the rest of the people while Edward was facing the lone, dirty, odd-eyed man that was now pinned to the wall glaring daggers at him.</p><p>
  <em>“When did you learn to do that?”</em>
</p><p><em>“Hughes taught me while I stayed at his house, it wasn’t until two years ago when I started practicing again out of boredom</em>,” Mustang grunted in approval before he tried to get answers again.</p><p><em>“Now, where are we?”</em> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>if you want me to continue this, do me a favor and point out plot holes, wrong info, and other errors and stuff in the comments because i honestly lost track of this</p><p>Update: I'll be continuing this story, Ill be fixing the chapters now</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sudden Arrival</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward kept his eyes focused on the man that was pinned to the wall while Mustang addressed the rest of the people that were pinned to the walls. The man was giving Edward a fierce one-eyed glare while his blue eye turned and swirled all over the place. His glare was almost on par with Teachers, almost, of course, a glare that is any less than Teachers is unable to scare Edward. Edward stared at him back, unwilling to back down from a glare that couldn’t live up to Teachers or Major General Armstrong. Someone in the room cleared their throat nervously before speaking.</p><p>“Please, there is no need for hostility General Mustang.” Their eyes narrowed at the old, deep voice that carried over the room. They already know who the two foreign men are despite the fact that the pair fell into this room less than two minutes ago. This had to be planned. Edward mentally sighed while keeping his eyes on the old man. Asking himself why their lives can’t be simple?</p><p>“Who are you? Why are we here?” Mustang quickly switched to English, making Edward glad that it was a requirement for all soldiers to know English or at least have a basic understanding of English. It’s a good thing Edward and Alphonse learned out of boredom when they were younger (In the words of Edward, the grammar rules make no fucking sense)</p><p>“My name is Albus Dumbledore and these are my subordinates. I apologize for the sudden…arrival, may you ask your son to release us so we can discuss this in a civilized manner?”</p><p>“He’s not my son.”</p><p>“I’m not this idiot’s son!” The occupants of the room blinked in surprise at the pair’s outburst. Although Mustang does not look happy at the title he was given by his subordinate. Mustang sighed in frustration and Edward paid more attention to his voice while keeping his eye on the man.</p><p>“He’s not my son, he’s one of my men and a fellow state alchemist. Were you the one that requested the mission for a combative state alchemist?” Some of the occupants gasped and the room quickly filled with whispers and muttered words as they waited for someone to answer his question. The man under Edward's gaze started to “discreetly” check his range of movement while keeping eye contact with his own eyes. Edward narrowed his eyes at this, the man stopped his attempts once he realized that Edward had noticed. While the older man was frustrated that the child in front of him had noticed his attempts, he couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by the child’s vigilance. Among the mutterings in the room, it didn’t take long for the old voice to break through everything again</p><p>“Yes, I was the one that sent you the request for a state alchemist with combative abilities, I also included two black notebooks for both you and your subordinate to keep, along with a third larger book…” The man trailed off as he waited for either Edward or Mustang to release their combative stances and let them go again. Mustang stayed silent, as he thought over the information that was just given to him. Edward could feel the movement of Mustang as he turned around just enough to glance at Edward and at the man that was pinned to the wall. Turning back to his side of the room, he took one more glance at the odd people before making his decision</p><p><em>“Let them go.”</em> Edward blinked in surprise as he tried to process what his bastard of a General just told him. While keeping his eye on the still glaring man, he turned his head to the side just enough to hear Mustang better.</p><p>
  <em>“What?”</em>
</p><p><em>“Just do it Fullmetal!”</em> Edward stared at the man who was pinned to the wall. Trying to decide if this was an acceptable time to ignore Mustang's orders like he has done so many times. He stared at the man for a little bit longer before begrudgingly lowered himself to the floor and released the other occupants of the room while returning the floor to normal. To arm himself and prevent any rogue thoughts of an ambush, Edward kept the spear in his hand. Edward watched the man as he slowly walked over to the other, letting Mustang and Edward stand side by side as both parties kept an eye on each other, both ready to defend themselves in the blink of an eye.</p><p>“Now then, why don’t we all relax?” Everyone looked at each other apprehensively and tried their best to relax while they put away their sticks in their pockets. Edward noticed with slight interest that they were all placed where they could easily be grabbed.</p><p>“Now then, may I ask who are you?” Edward turned back to look at the mass of adults and noticed that all of them were staring at him expectantly. Edward shifted his eyes from all of them before answering the old man’s question. He ignored the nudge he had gotten from Mustang once he had taken too long to answer.</p><p>“Edward Elric, I was assigned to this mission just before we appeared here.” The adults in the room immediately started to protest that the young man in front of them was the one that was assigned to the mission, the only one that said nothing against the assignment was Mustang. However, that doesn’t mean that the General was starting to get annoyed for the protests and the reasons that the protests were based on were starting to just plain piss them both off.</p><p>“He can’t be older than George and Fred!”</p><p>“He’s too young!”</p><p>“Albus, he’s too young to be involved!” They all stopped their ranting and protesting when Mustang let loose a small puff of fire that caught their attention and thoroughly shut them up. They were all looking at him in fear at his small display of his power. Edward scoffed at his display of intimidation, of course, the bastard had to go and show off his alchemy.</p><p>“I will not stand for ignorant fools such as yourself disrespect one of my men like that. “They stayed quiet after Mustang said that. Edward looked at Mustang and he could tell that by the glance Mustang gave him, he wanted Edward to introduce himself. Edward sighed and causally twirled the spear in his hand, an act that gave him some wide-eyed stares. Mustang merely sighed as he watched Edward's version of intimidation.</p><p>“I’m Edward Elric, I’m a State Alchemist, and I was assigned to this mission.”</p><p>“Fullmetal.” Mustang's voice was full of exhaustion and annoyance and upon Edward's glance at his face, he almost growled in frustration at the fact Mustang wants him to completely introduce himself which means announcing his age, rank, and accomplishments.</p><p>“I’m the Fullmetal Alchemist, I’m one of the top alchemists in Amestris as well as a war hero and veteran. I’ve been serving in the military for the past nine years, as of now, I am 21 years old. I’ve been serving under Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist, for the entirety of my military career.”</p><p>By the time Edward had finished his sentence, the room was in an uproar again due to his age, even though he had lied about it and said that he is 21 instead of 19 (He tweaked his service time as well). Mustang noticed the difference in Edwards’s age and glanced at him. He dropped the matter though when he started to listen to the same protests that just happened a few minutes ago, realizing that it was a good move on Edwards’s part to lie about his age. Mustang and Edward listened to the same protests before getting pissed off. Mustang was pissed off since they were blowing off one of his best soldiers and protesting his orders while Edward was pissed off because of the protests against his age, he had been an adult since he was 12 but now that he was a legal adult in every part of the world, there was still a problem?</p><p>“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Everyone stopped talking and stared at Mustang, who was already very frustrated by the fact that his question has yet to be answered. He rubbed his eyes tiredly with his hand and sighed. His shoulders were slumped as he relaxed. With one more look at the others, Edward relaxed too as he realized that these people held virtually no threat to the two experienced combatants. Based on their thin or plump figures, it looks like they haven’t exercised since they were young children, something that Edward noted with slight disgust. Now that Mustang had everyone’s attention, he continued his tangent.</p><p>“Listen, no one has told me why exactly we are here, now, I’ll ask one more time, what are we doing here? Fullmetal’s mission wasn’t supposed to start for another week. How did we get here?” All of the heads turned to look at the old man that was looking as calm as ever, even the old lady, who was looking as calm as calm could be, had finally lost her composure as something dawned over her. She whipped around to look at the even older man, a look of disbelief on her face.</p><p>“Albus, are they…muggles?” The two soldiers stood there confused at the term “muggle” while both of them have been called many things, “muggle” was certainly not one of them. Meanwhile, everyone was arguing again, protesting their very existence until the old man silenced everyone. This time they were arguing about the fact that Edward “was” 21 and that the two of them were muggles, whatever the hell that meant.</p><p>“Well, to answer your question, you are correct, the mission was not supposed to start for another week, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to push the time table some days ahead. As for how you got here, the third notebook we gave you are port keys. Devices that allow you to instantly teleport to where ever you desire, well, almost wherever. As for the other two books, they are communication devices that will allow the two of you to communicate at all times. If General Mustang were to write in his notebook, then the other notebook will heat up and vibrate before displaying his message and vice versa.”</p><p>“What, are you telling me that using this piece of paper and leather, we were able to travel hundreds of miles in seconds?” The old man smiled and affirmed his suspicions. Edward turned to Mustang, who looked to be just as confused as Edward with this entire situation. After all, it was not every day where the two of them would be taken somewhere and have their kidnappers claim that they had used teleportation. In any case, Edwards’s response is perfectly reasonable.</p><p><em>“Ok, we were kidnapped, this is some type of drug ring.</em>” Mustang turned to look at Edward when he finished his comment, Mustang was annoyed, and his exhaustion wasn’t making it any better. The exhaustion upon a new location and various other things made for a mad Mustang.</p><p><em>“Stop being a fool Fullmetal, what if they are telling the truth?”</em> Edward blinked in surprise at his superior’s statement. Did the flame alchemist, the same man who studied in the science of fire and the like, just admit that this entire situation of transportation could be a reality?</p><p><em>“You’re kidding, there’s no way that you believe this bullshit!”</em> Edward growled this out at Mustang, furious that Mustang had believed the strange old man, the same old man that had known their names before they had even introduced themselves. Mustang’s patience had finally snapped at Edwards’s attitude and while the young man didn’t bat an eye at the sudden outburst, the rest of the room cringed and felt sympathy for Edward.</p><p><em>“Well do you have a better explanation!? Ten minutes ago, we were in my office, at headquarters in the middle of Amestris and now we are in some dark old room surrounded by people!?”</em> Edward opens his mouth to say his response, however, before he could, the tense moment was broken by the old man clearing his throat, effectively grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. The old man waited for Mustang and Edward to break their intense eye contact and with slight frustration, Mustang was the first one to break away from the staring contest. But if you were going to ask him, he would just say that he decided that he believed that it would be better to pay attention to the old man than to some 20-year-old. Edward gave a small smirk at this action but it quickly fell off his face as he turned back to the old man, his thoughts completely focused on him.</p><p>“Perhaps we should clear up some misunderstandings.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Beginning of a New Adventure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward ran down the stairs in a hurry, taking two steps at a time, he cursed when he saw the time on his pocket watch one more time. Living up to his reputation, Edward was thoroughly late to the Great Feast. To be fair, he was busy doing some research in the library and he had noticed that he needed to go back up to his room to get ready. What he did not take into account was how long it was going to take him to put on his complete uniform. While it was easy to put on the blue uniform, he had struggled on putting on his medals, automail does not make it easy to do delicate tasks. Getting frustrated, he used alchemy to temporarily bind the metals to the fabric before grabbing his hat and running out of his room. He noticed with slight disdain that he sounded like wind chimes as he ran down the stairs with his medals clinking against each other. As a final touch to Edwards anger, he was slightly lost in the massive castle, Edward did have to stop a few times to try and figure out where exactly he was before he took off running again. With enough turns, he was finally at the doors to the great hall, he panted as he glared at them in frustration and decided that they looked sturdy enough to handle his automail leg. The doors slammed against the wall that was behind them before Edward walked in himself.</p><p>Everyone in the hall immediately quieted down and far too many heads for Edwards liking swiveled to stare at him as he stomped his way down the middle of the tables up to Dumbledore, where he was standing and most likely delivering the speech that many teachers have told and explained to Edward. Edward noticed with slight smugness that some of the younger students would inch away from him as he passed by them. Edward walked up to the old man and stood there, unsure what to do next now that he had made a dramatic entrance. To the credit of Dumbledore, he didn’t look mad that Edward had interrupted his speech and looked happy to see him instead (but Edward isn’t going to complain).</p><p>“Ah just in time. And this is our Alchemy teacher. Professor Elric has come from the country of Amestris to teach here at Hogwarts. Professor Elric is here as a representative of his country, please, let’s give him a Hogwarts welcome.” Polite clapping filled the air as he walked up to the table where the rest of the teachers are. Edward took off his hat as he walked up to them. When he was right in front of the table, Edward turned around and gave everyone in the hall a lazy, two-fingered salute to the crowd before taking his seat right next to the greasy-haired man known as Snape, otherwise known as the potions Professor. And next to Flitwick, the short charms teacher that has a hard time seeing over his desk when teaching his class. And unfortunately for the young alchemist, he’s not friends with any of the teachers seeing that most of them don’t want to become friends with a teacher that’s young enough to be one of their former students. Then again, Edward didn’t think they like the fact that he calls Dumbledore ‘old man’ almost every chance he got. The first time Edward called him that in front of everyone, they all looked like he had just dropped kicked their firstborn child.</p><p>Edward watched impassively with his head resting on his palm as Dumbledore delivered his speech until he was cut off the pink toad. Edward scowled as Dumbledore sat down and let Umbridge speak her mind. Ever since she was introduced to Edward and the rest of the teachers yesterday, the pink toad and the red-clad alchemist were already butting heads. Well more like the other teachers had to restrain Edward while he threatened to kick her ass after she called him a small child and tried to order him out of the room. Edward could genuinely say that he hated her and can’t stand to be in her presence. Edward's mind started to drift as she started to preach some bullshit. After arriving at the wizard’s headquarters, Dumbledore explained to the two Amestrians the concept of magic (it took them a few hours to convince the two scientists) and explained their current situation as well with their Voldemort problem along with the exact reason they had requested a combative state alchemist. Edward let his eyes drift over to the kid he was supposed to protect, Harry Potter. He was sitting with his friends and all three of them were glaring daggers at pinky, something he couldn’t help but approve of. (Hey, the enemy of his enemy is his friend.) Bringing himself back to reality, Edward noticed with relief that Umbridge had finished her stupid little speech and now it was time to eat. Edward was in the middle of absentmindedly serving himself some food when Professor Flitwick started to ask him some questions about his strange attire. It was a complete 180 compared to the formfitting, black leather clothes he had been wearing leading up to the opening dinner.</p><p>“Erm, Professor Elric, May I ask what you are wearing?” Edward turned to look at the small man and realized that the rest of the teachers, save for Professor McGonagall, were staring at him, and waiting for the answer. He had yet to inform any of the teachers of his professional occupation nor his true age, which is something he meant to keep under lock and key. Edward looked at the teachers who were staring at him intently before he calmly answered while serving himself some food.</p><p>“I serve in the military back home; my superior has ordered me to wear <em>my ugly-ass</em> uniform at important school events such as this one. I would have been on time if it wasn’t for this <em>fucking</em> thing.” Some of the teachers gasped at the news that Edward was in the military, and after the doting that Mrs. Weasley had during the short time he was with her, Edward certainly doesn’t need more people giving him their unwelcomed pity and their sad stares or looks.</p><p>“But you’re so young! How long have you been serving in the military?” Edward plopped a sausage into his mouth before nonchalantly shrugging his shoulder at outburst before answering the charms teacher question, taking care to make sure that he wouldn’t have any food fall out of his mouth when he was talking.</p><p>“Since I was 12.” The teachers quietly reflected on that until a small scoff and laugh broke the silence among them. Edward groaned loudly as he realized who the voice was coming from. He could already feel the vein on his forehead throbbing out of anger and spite at the short, plump woman. Edward slowly put down his utensils before leaning forward to look at the spiteful woman who was about three seats away from him. She had a sneer on her face and looked down her nose as she spoke her thoughts</p><p>“Please, it doesn’t do any good to lie, young man, we all know that there is no way that you’ve been in the military since you were 12. How long have you really been in the military? If you had been in the military at all?” Edward glared at Umbridge who had a smug look on her fat face as she thought that she had finally exposed his lies. Edward stared at her and once he accomplished that flinch from Umbridge as she was at the end of his stare, he stood up and didn’t look away until he finished his next sentence.</p><p>“Sorry, I just lost my appetite, a certain <em>fat toad</em> and the scenery is the reason for that. Honestly, how could you people eat with that around?” Edward walked away from the table and smiled to himself when the entire great hall heard an indignant ‘how dare you’ being yelled at Edwards back. The students stared between the two teachers, some of them were amazed at his gall while some of them had gained a newfound respect for the blonde. Edward hadn’t done something so satisfying since he fooled Yoki into giving him the mining town deed. Edward walked through the great hall, ignoring the whispers, and muttering, and slowly walked back up to his room as he relished in the fact that he was going to have the entire year to make both her life and the student’s life miserable. The only flaw is that they are going to be able to do the same thing to Edward himself, but he is confident that if he can annoy Teacher and survive, he’ll be able to survive this school year with no problem at all.</p><p>Harry and almost all of the students had stared at Edward as he walked out of the great hall. Although they didn’t know what he had said to get that reaction, they did know that the man had a big set of balls to say something that would get a reaction like that. Harry looked back up to the staff table to see Umbridge with a red face who was sitting sourly at the table. Not far from her, Harry could see that most if not all of the teachers were all hiding smirks in their own way, either smiling into their drinks or they were merely facing away from her.</p><p>“What do you think he said?” Ron was still watching the man as he quickly disappeared from view. The man had a quick but confident gait, giving everyone the impression that he was a force to be reckoned with. Upon noticing Hermione’s silence, it didn’t take long for them along with all the other males of the school to realize that most of the girls were staring at him with small blushes. Their new alchemy teacher was a very handsome man and many of them were already planning to join alchemy. Harry's gaze lingered on Hermione before answering Ron’s question.</p><p>“I’m not sure but what do you think he’s wearing?” Hermione snapped out of her gaze at that point and turned on them, surprised that they didn’t know about the somewhat recent coup of Amestris, it was all over the news when it happened, at least the muggle news. He wasn’t sure who Edward was exactly but she was sure that he was an Amestrian soldier.</p><p>“Are you kidding me? He’s an Amestrian soldier, it was all over the news for months back in third year! It was on the news for weeks and I talked about it for weeks!” Ron and Harry just stared at her blankly, Harry wasn’t allowed to use to the T.V due to his aunt and uncle and Ron didn’t even know what a T. V was. Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed. Of course, they didn’t remember anything she said.</p><p>“Never mind, I’ll explain it to you later, but he must be a skilled alchemist if he’s from Amestris. That’s their specialty, using alchemy. They have a different form of alchemy compared to ours.” The two boys made an ‘oh’ shape with their mouth, Harry stared at the door, where the alchemy teacher had walked through long ago with a question on his mind.</p><p>Why did they send a soldier?</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Mulling Over Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward took a deep breath of air as he walked out of the castle in the wee hours of the morning. Dumbledore had permitted him to use the Quidditch field (whatever the fuck that was) as his training grounds to maintain his fitness. The last thing Edward needed would spend a couple of months rebuilding his strength when he finished with this mission. Not to mention, he still needed to do his physical therapy exercises unless he wanted to experience pain from his ports. Edward took notice of the oddly high circles before starting laps around the field. He assumed that one lap of the field equaled roughly a fourth of a mile. If there was one thing Edward did not skip, it was his cardio, the ability to run fast for long periods has saved his life before, and it will save his life again if he has to run for it. Thus, Edward did about 12 laps before branching off into his sets that Teacher had beat into him. Most times, Alphonse would join him and then finish with a spar but since he was kinda gone at the moment, he was going to have to make do with stretching and then shadowboxing. It wasn’t as good as a regular spar but he doubted that he would be able to ask a student or a teacher that looked at least a little bit fit to do this with him. While he was throwing punches at an imaginary opponent, his mind started to drift what Dumbledore had told him last night.</p><p>
  <em>“So, what’s the plan? What’s the deal with this moldy mort guy? You didn’t give me a good explanation and I would like to know everything.” Dumbledore sat in his seat with a patient look on his face. A look that Edward would have to assume he gained after dealing with students for way too long. Edward himself was standing up with his arms crossed, his uniform jacket discarded on the closest seat. The opening feast just finished and Edward was going to take this chance to learn more about his situation. Dumbledore took in the young man that was in front of him, he still had to get used to the fact that he wasn’t speaking to a student of his school but instead a full-fledged member of the Amestrian military. He was still uneasy that his assigned state alchemist was so young but after hearing the explanation from the General, he had no choice but to accept it. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked for a well-rounded alchemist and just for a combative alchemist.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Before we start our conversation on Lord Voldemort, I would like to know a few things about yourself…what exactly qualifies you to be the one who was assigned?” Dumbledore realized that he was being rude but he wanted to make sure that he was getting his money’s worth and that he would be able to rely on Edward. Edward himself rolled his eyes, exasperated by the question. He didn’t fail to notice the scrutinizing glances McGonagall had given over the week and he was already sick of them.</em>
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  <em>“I already told you this when we appeared in that house, you should have paid more attention.” Dumbledore was already realizing that this young man would be very hard to work with and depending on his mood, it may be hard to even get straight answers. Perhaps there would have to be a point in time when he is forced to use Occlumency to get the answers he wants but is not that time and he just had to be patient.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I understand that you have been part of the military for the past nine years, I am merely wondering how a person of your age was able to acquire such a high ranking.” Edward deliberated answering his question. Ever since the coup, Amestris had opened up their borders, allowing the country to greatly improve in the terms of technology and the information flow so Amestris has been rapidly improving. (Alchemist are in high demand to make products without pollution at the moment) now that the military is more transparent, it’s not going to take long for all of Edwards’s adventures and accomplishments to become known.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“All state alchemists are automatically given the ranking of a major, so it didn’t take me as long to become a colonel as it normally did. But I don’t care for ranking so let’s move on.” Dumbledore’s eyebrows disappeared into his fringe. To be 12 years old and to be a major in the military? That was an accomplishment in itself. But that begs another question, what business does a 12-year-old have in the military?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Excuse me for being blunt, but, what business does a 12-year-old have in the military? What did your parents say?” Dumbledore shrank back at the sudden flare of anger that Edward had within his eyes. He wasn’t expecting such a question to be taken in such a way. Edward was already getting annoyed that the only thing he has learned that this old man is nosy as fuck.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s none of your business old man, now, what’s is the deal with this lord fucktard?” Dumbledore wanted to push the matter to get his question answered but realized that if he didn’t just drop the subject, Edward was going to blow a gasket and storm out before they get anything done.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Lord Voldemort used to be a student of mine. Tom Riddle, was obsessed with power and became determined to gain it. He changed his name to Lord Voldemort before going on a killing spree, killing anyone who wasn’t of magical descent or anyone who opposed him. There was a prophecy that foretold the coming of a savior. It just so happens that the savior was Harry Potter. Harry was just a newborn, so we sent his family into hiding. At the last minute, the Potters changed their secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew, who revealed their location to Voldemort. Voldemort killed Harry’s parents and nearly killed him until his mother’s love saved him – “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Whoa whoa whoa, how does a mother’s love save someone from death? Did she give herself up to save him?” Edward was confused as of how the love of a mother could save someone. Unless he meant that Harry's mother sacrificed herself to protect him and was successful, he doesn’t know how else that would work.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yes, Lilly gave herself up for her only child. When Voldemort tried to kill him, her love was so strong that it was able to create a protective barrier around Harry. The spell ended up reflecting off the barrier and killed Voldemort as a result. For the past 15 years, Voldemort has been dead, until now.” Edward's anger flared up at the mention of revival. There was no way in hell that the idiot could have come back to life after being dead for the past 15 years. It’s impossible and if anyone knows that, it’s Edward. No one can come back to life.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What do you mean he came back to life?! He died, no one can come back to life. No one!” Dumbledore was surprised at the anger that young Edward showed. He was expecting him to be confused, not angry</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Voldemort had divided his soul into pieces to ensure his survival. It took his followers 15 years to be able to resurrect him, but they accomplished it last year when they were able to capture Harry- “Edward cut him off, fed up about getting a verbal story, and wanted the actual documents.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That's enough, where are the reports? I’d rather just read this myself instead of listening to a verbal story. Send them to my room next chance you get.” Edward was just about to leave until he saw the guilty look on his face. That usually means that there is something wrong and then it dawned on him. They didn’t have the paper trail that he needs.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Are you telling me that your government didn’t make an investigation of this?!” Dumbledore sighed and shook his head sadly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No, the ministry of magic has been in denial with the return of Voldemort and they refuse the rumors. They have even have gone as far as to slander my name along with Harry's in the newspapers.” Edward was still trying to get over the fact that the government didn’t investigate and that they were even going as far as to slander their name in the newspapers.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So, you’re telling me, that your idiotic government, refuses to investigate the returning of a mass serial killer?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yes, that about sums it up.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Fuck this, I’m too tired. Write a report and send it to me, this is a bunch of bullshit.” Edward slammed the door behind him and Dumbledore could hear his obscenities until he was too far away to hear them. He didn’t know exactly how to feel about the young man storming out.</em>
</p><p>Edward came back to reality now that the sun was starting to rise and peak over the tops of the trees. He threw one final punch before starting his cool-down stretches. He was still waiting for Dumbledore to send him the complete report and decided that he would give him another day before going to bang on his door, asking for the report so he can hopefully help them get their shit together. He growled in anger once again as he remembered that as much as he wanted to contact Winry and explain the situation, this backward society didn’t use technology and had been told to avoid sending personal or official letters back home as the ministry already had an eye on him simply because Dumbledore had hired him almost last minute. He blew some hair out of his face, why couldn’t his life be simple?</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. First Day of School</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward walked out of his office in his new clothes, ones that he was planning to wear before the mission started but that quickly went down the drain when he and Mustang were summoned a week too early. Instead of wearing his usual black undershirt and a regular shirt, Edward changed it out for a black form-fitting sleeveless shirt. It had a high collar but had a plunge in the middle that went down just far enough to see the top of his collarbone. It had some embellishments on the right shoulder that emphasized his automail arm when the jacket was off. He hadn't changed his signature red jacket much, it's just a much darker red and wasn't as obvious as the jacket he had when he was younger. His shoes were now black combat boots that were mostly hidden by the bottom of his leather pants. Overall, he had to admit that his current outfit is much better than the one he wore when he was younger. He is sure people can agree with him (virtually everyone else who knows him) that his style was questionable, to say the least.</p><p>Edward walked out of his office and decided that it was too late to grab breakfast, he didn’t make any detours before going to his class. It was a couple of minutes before his first class of the day started and he was pleasantly surprised to see a mass of students standing right outside the classroom door. The mass of 5th-year students gossiped with each other as they contained their excitement right outside the door. Edward smiled at the sight of the innocent children, he could already tell that only one-fourth of the same kids were going to be allowed to study alchemy. They all stared at him as he walked past them and opened up the door for them to come in. while he was getting the classroom ready, more students were streaming in and sitting down with their friends and housemates (a concept he finds to be extremely idiotic). Edward closed the door when he saw that it was time for class to start and looked at the mass of 5th years in yellow, blue, red, and green. This particular class had Harry Potter himself and his friends as well. Deciding that it was pointless to just stare at them, he introduced himself to the slightly younger students.</p><p>“Morning you little brats.” A wave of displeasure went through the room after he said that but he ignored it and kept on talking, pleased that he didn’t have to speak formally anymore. Some of the students were bristling at the insult while the others were off-put by the rude greeting. Ron and Harry have already exchanged glances while Hermione frowned at the greeting but decided to say nothing about it. If this teacher was as good as they said he was, then she could see past his rude demeanor. Edward looked at their reactions, already predicting which students would be unable to correctly answer the riddle. Harry and all of the other students were staring closely at Edward. While they weren’t close enough to notice at the great feast, they were now. His golden eyes unnerved many of them. Especially since they were almost identical to professor Lupin's eyes, if anything they were even brighter. Harry and Ron exchanged nervous glances, while they weren’t scared of the man himself, they were scared of what was going to happen to him. Edward, who was already very used to stares, did notice but did not take note of it before continuing.</p><p>“Before I get started, who has the Alchemy textbook that was on the supply list?” All of the kids wearing a yellow scarf raised their hands along with some stragglers in the other colors, all of them had smug looks on their faces as they stared at the students who didn’t have the book. Harry cursed under his breath, he knew he had forgotten something when he was buying his books, the werewolf problem leaving everyone’s mind. Ron felt a pit in his stomach as he realized that he was going to have to ask his parents to buy him yet another book, to make matters worse, Alchemy was a class that none of his older siblings had had before, so there was virtually no chance of him using their copy. Edward ran a hand down his face at the sight of all of the students that had the textbook. It was a good thing that Edward had decided to look over the government assigned book instead of just assuming that it would be ok for the students to use it. He had only read it for about ten minutes before he realized that a bag of shit would be a better example of alchemy and promptly burned it in his fireplace. Some of the students noticed his reaction and frowned in confusion, after all, it wasn’t every day where the Professor didn’t approve of the textbook that was printed on the supplies list.</p><p><em>“Shit,</em> ok, everyone who has the textbook, go and get a refund. I should have some coming in from home sometime this week.” The student’s faces lit up with relief and slight confusion that they didn’t need the books. Many of the students started to protest, especially the ones that had the textbooks. Hermione, of course, was one of the students that were losing their minds because if there is one thing that Hermione granger hates, it’s being wrong. Ron and Harry being one of the kids that didn’t bring their textbooks, looked at each other in relief, relief that they didn’t have to spend more money (The alchemy book was stupid expensive). Edward waited for the class to settle down and once he got annoyed with the ruckus, he put his hand in his mouth before whistling loudly, causing the students to stop and settle down. Edward stared at them and the wide-eyed students stared at him back as they waited for their new Professor to say something.”</p><p>“I know that they are books that were assigned by your retarded government but they are wrong, I read my copy last night and promptly burned it, it’s useless to you and it’s only going to get you killed. Tomorrow or sometime this week, I’ll have some alchemy books I studied when I was younger ready for you guys to use” The students settled down at the end of his statement while they exchanged glances, they were no doubt surprised that they could be killed while learning alchemy. Edward let them exchange glances a little bit longer to get out some of their nervous energy before taking the silence as the cue to continue.</p><p>“Ok, introductions, my name is Edward Elric and I am your alchemy Professor for the year, I know that you all were taught that alchemy is a dying branch of magic and that the only thing it is good for is turning lead into gold. And while you can turn lead into gold, any alchemist worth their salt can do it, it is not a dying branch of magic. It’s not even magic, it’s a science. It is a science that can be unforgiving and deadly if not treated right, which is why I am here to make sure you don’t kill yourselves in the process.” The students were starting to look nervous at the multiple mentions of death in the first ten minutes of class. Ron and Harry exchanged glances for the umpteenth time as their nervous energy started to show. Hermione herself was also turning back to look at the boys for some source of comfort and felt relief that she is not the only one who is nervous. Edward watched them impassively as they realized the dangers that alchemy could bring. Of course, he was watching impassively until he heard a snort emanate from the back of the classroom from the section where the green students were sitting. Some of the green students themselves were surprised to hear this and before long, each and every head swiveled to look at the source of the sound. This let the very annoyed Edward Elric find the student who made the offensive sound within seconds. It was a blonde hair student with gray eyes and a smug look on his face, Edward narrowed his eyes at him while he spoke.</p><p>“What’s so funny brat?” The little shit scowled at Edwards’s title for him before arrogantly asking while he tilted his head in a way that gave him an air of superiority that would intimidate most people. Of course, most people in this country haven’t gone through a civil war where they were a sacrifice along with their brother.</p><p>“If this is so deadly, then why are you teaching it? I doubt it’s that hard if you’re able to learn it?” Edwards’s fury was visible on his face as his lip curled up in what could say in a snarl as his eyebrows were furrowed out of clear anger. Did that little shit just tell the Full-mother fucking- metal alchemist that he doubted his intelligence? Edward pointed at him with a gloved finger before saying</p><p>“You, get out, right now.” The boy looked stunned that Edward had just told him to get out of the classroom right now but decided to dig his grave a little bit deeper by saying the words that are bound to make any altercation physical.</p><p>“Make me.” The air was thick with tension and the stupid kid was smiling at Edward as if he didn’t think that Edward would make him. Whereas most teachers would drop the matter as they were not allowed to manhandle the children, Edward Elric was not a normal teacher and was was not a normal person overall. If missing two limbs didn’t stop him, a stupid little school rule was sure as HELL not going to stop him. Edward gave him a wicked smile at the words, a smile that thoroughly unnerved anyone who was able to see him. It didn’t take long for the blonde hair shit to drop his smile as well. Without saying anything, Edward grabbed him by the back of his robe and started to drag him out of the room. The class erupted into jeers, insults, and gasps. The boy was struggling to get enough traction on his feet so he could stand up. Of course, that was a little bit difficult as Edward was dragging him, shocking the class with the show of strength and power.</p><p>“Just you wait until my father hears about this! He’ll destroy you and your family!” Edward laughed harshly at this and threw him into the hallway, where he hit the floor and slid a couple of feet. He scrambled back onto his feet and glared at him, fury in his grey eyes. Although the child’s glare quickly subsided when he saw the glare that Edward gave him.</p><p>“I doubt your coward of a father will be able to do anything to my family. “Edward took great pleasure in seeing his face morph into one of fury and hatred before he slammed the door shut and effectively locked him out of the room. Edward looked at the rest of the students and used a tone that Mustang uses when giving orders in hopes that it will make them get their shit together. Considering that they straightened up and snapped to attention when he started talking, it worked.</p><p>“Now, who else is doubting my ability to teach this class?” No one moved at all, the previously smug students were now refusing to look at him in the eye, Edward smiled at the sight of obedience and walked back to the front of the class, getting ready to ask some final questions before lecturing.</p><p>“Great now, before I start teaching you guys anything, how many of you have taken a science course?” Edward frowned at the sight of almost no one raising their hand, only two people rose their hand. And in the terms of Edward, they would be the only educated ones there</p><p>“Who knows what the periodic table is?” The same two students were the only ones to raise their hands and were again Harry and Hermione. Edward rubbed his hand against his face again as he realized that this mission was going to be much harder than originally anticipated. Of course, anyone would assume that 15-year-old kids would have some type of a basic science class. But of course, not as there is no way it would be that easy.</p><p>“Damn, of course, this is going to be hard, ok, in that case, I will start with the basics,” Edward placed his hands on his desk and leaned forward. Hermione and the rest of the serious students mimicked his actions as they were getting ready to listen to each and every word that was uttered out of his mouth</p><p>“Alchemy is not magic, it is a science, so there will be no need for those little sticks of yours in here.”</p><p>And that is where everything went downhill. </p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Little Shits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward angrily stabbed the piece of meat that was on his plate. He had just finished his first-class before coming to the great hall for lunch and he was not happy about the results and what the students told him. Edwards furious stabbing of the poor meat brought the attention of his companions. Snape merely raised an eyebrow while Flitwick looked somewhat taken aback by Edwards’s actions. The two of them exchanged a silent glance before Snape asked the question that was on both their minds.</p><p>“What’s got you so riled up Elric?” Edward grunted a response and waited until he put the tattered piece of meat into his mouth to give him an answer, well, more like growling out an answer.</p><p>“All of these <em>fucking</em> spoiled brats are the problem. The moment I mention that alchemy is not related to magic in any way, they start complaining about how my class is a waste of time. <em>Fucking little brats</em>.” Edward trailed off at the end and chewed on the piece of meat until he noticed the stares that Flitwick and Snape were giving him. He quickly chewed and swallowed the piece of meat before saying in a less aggressive tone.</p><p>“What?” This time it was the much smaller Professor that asked the question, his eyebrows disappearing into his fringe as he did so, his round glasses only emphasizing his owl-like stare.</p><p>“Professor Elric, isn’t Alchemy a dying branch of magic?” The fork that Edward was holding snapped in his hand as for the third time that day, Edward had gotten pissed off due to someone else’s comments. Seeing as the fork was made out of thick metal, the sight of seeing it snap in half without any effort made the two jump in surprise. Well Flitwick did, Snape just rose an eyebrow in slight surprise. Edward took a deep breath to slightly calm himself down before saying through his gritted teeth.</p><p>“No, it’s not, there’s a reason why your magical community is letting it die and I’m positive because wizards and witches are too lazy to try and find out a way to make alchemy work as they want it to. Which is impossible by the way. The alchemy in this country is shit compared to the alchemy back home. This country still hasn’t established some of the basic rules other than the Equivalent Exchange.” Both of them were still staring at Edward, but this time, it was in curiosity. Edward noticed this within seconds and realized that both of them were most likely curious about the rules of alchemy. Taking this chance to take out one of his throwing knives, he slid it into his hand before showing it to them. Edward also noticed with slight amusement that the pair of teachers were looking at his waist and hands as they tried to figure out where exactly he had gotten that knife.</p><p>“One of the rules of alchemy is equivalent exchange, you can’t use more than what you have.” Edward balanced the knife on his fingertip and since it was designed for throwing, it was perfectly balanced on his fingertip. By this time, Snape and Flitwick were staring at him with morbid curiosity (although if you ask Snape, he'll just say that he wanted to see how Edward explained stuff or some shit like that) as they soaked up the information that Edward was giving him.</p><p>“Everything in an alchemical reaction must be perfectly balanced. If you try to make something where you need five kilograms of dirt and you only have two kilograms, it’s going to fail.” Edward twirled the throwing knife into his palm before grasping it and tugging off the handle, making it severely unbalanced. Edward went back to place the knife on his fingertip before it failed horribly and lodged itself into the table with its weight. Edward turned to look at Flitwick and Snape who looked like they understand the most basic law.</p><p>“What happens if it isn’t balanced?” Edward shrugged his shoulders as he placed the broken knife into the holster in the small of his back. Their question was very simple to answer, and unfortunately for Edward and his brother, he knew the ins and outs of rebounds, but he didn’t have to tell Snape that.</p><p>“It depends, sometimes if it’s something that’s minute, nothing will happen, but if it’s a major deficient, then you'll get a rebound, even then, sometimes it depends on the situation.” Edward quickly fixed the fork and now that he was in a better mood (talking about alchemy always does that) he kept on eating, only pausing to serve himself more food or to answer one of their questions. This repeated for several more minutes before the conversation got to something a little bit more interesting.</p><p>“What’s the worst that can happen in a rebound?” Edward took a swig of pumpkin juice before he answered Flitwick’s question. He swished it around his mouth as he deliberated on what exactly he should tell them and what parts he should omit. In the end, he decided there was no point in omitting his answer.</p><p>“Death, the worst thing that can happen is death, but with what I’m teaching the students, they shouldn’t get to the point until they have a few years under their belt. Assuming that they’ll keep on learning it of course.” Flitwick and Snape sat in silence as they reflected on the fact that alchemy could cause death. But in hindsight, is it that surprising? Alchemy just like any other science is researched based and Edward is sure that there have been deaths when wizards were messing around with their magic.</p><p>“When did you get to that point?” Edward stopped chewing as a part of the shock and as a part of sadness. Edward had reached that age along with his brother when he was at the ripe age of 11 and when his brother was just 10. When they tried to see their mother again, a noble cause that ended in an unprecedented disaster for both brothers. Edward quickly swallowed his food, nothing ruined his mood and appetite more than the thought of that day.</p><p>“Elric?” The sound of Snape’s (worried?) voice brought Edward out of his thoughts and made him realize that he was just staring down at the table with a frown on his face. He looked back up at the teachers before setting down his utensils while bitterly answering the question.</p><p>“I was 11.” Edward sighed before placing his hands on the table, pushing his chair back, and walking away. The other teachers noticed his leaving with a frown on their faces and before he left, he gave them a small explanation.</p><p>“Sorry, I just lost my appetite.” Edward put his hands in his pockets and walked slowly to his room, brooding on the matter as he did so. Edward didn’t come out of his stupor until he was standing right in front of his office. He entered his office with a heavy sigh and locked the door behind himself. he took off his jacket and started to take off all of the equipment that he had become accustomed to wearing (courtesy of Hawkeye and Mustang) he took off the gun holster that was around his shoulders and placed it, along with the gun, into the case that was on his desk and put it away, although he did leave out the knife that he still needed to fix. Stretching, he groaned while he reached his hands over his head and felt a couple of pops in his back and shoulder. Once he was done, he put his hands on his hips and looked at his messy desk with a sigh. He picked up the small framed picture he had of his small family. It was of him, Winry, and the two kids. Yuriy had Edward’s same smile as he held them up and Izumi was looking towards the direction of the camera with her bright blue eyes, eyes she got from her mother. He sighed again at the sight of his family, unhappy that he wasn’t able to give them a proper farewell before being whisked off to this country. His armband caught his attention as he took it off and held it. Instead of the traditional wedding bands, Edward opted for this so he doesn’t have to fear breaking his ring while in a fight. Looking at the band only made him miss home even more.</p><p>“This is gonna be a long year."</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Alchemy and Detention</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward sighed in frustration as he limped around the cold classroom. While the stone castle was magnificent, it was shit in terms of keeping heat inside. Oddly enough, it seemed as if the students were fine with the current temperature. But Edward chalked it up to growing up down in the south where snow was just as rare as a chain store. His students noticed their alchemy teacher and were concerned for his well-being, especially since he was one of the few teachers that didn’t deduct or add house points. Although to be fair, it was only Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione that was concerned for him. The four of them eyed him warningly as Edward sighed again before limping back to the front of the classroom, still lecturing on the way. Edward was going to gesture with his right hand, before dropping the idea once a sharp pain made him grit his teeth in pain before continuing with his lecture.</p><p>“Every chemical reaction needs to be balanced, then you don’t get a reaction. The same thing goes for the circle in a transmutation, everything needs to be perfectly balanced and the circle is what will send the power evenly throughout the diagram. Now that we have gotten that established, your homework is going to be 20 perfect circles using the pencils I passed out earlier.” He held back a smile when he saw Ron and Harry hit their heads against the desk in frustration while Hermione was looking distraught that she couldn’t use her academic prowess for this. The other students had similar reactions as they realized that their artistic ability was going to play a part in this. Flipping open his pocket watch that he has yet to fix, he dismissed them.</p><p>“That will be all for today, remember to do your homework and memorize the first 10 elements of the periodic table by the next class. Don’t forget to bring your textbook the next time I see you.” Edward learned against his desk with his hands in his pockets as he watched the 5th years streaming out with their new textbooks and watched the 7th year’s stream in while grabbing the textbooks that were on the table on the back. Like the 5th years, all of the Slytherins in this class had dropped out once they heard that they couldn’t use magic along with some other students. Edward watched Harry storm out of the class while being followed by Ron and Hermione who looked just as upset as he did. He frowned at this and decided that if he wanted to protect the stubborn kid, he was going to have to get close to him in some way, shape, or form.</p><p>Edward walked up to the desk and watched the 7th years settle down as the 5th year students walked out. Like most of the other classes, almost all of the Slytherin students dropped out and there are about 15 kids in this particular class. Unfortunately for him, he also had the honor to have the infamous Weasley twins, the same ones Edward first saw when he first arrived at what has already been dubbed as Headquarters. For some reason, they believe that it gave them the right to be friendly with the short-tempered alchemist.</p><p>“Professor.” They both said it in a singing voice as they wrapped their arms around Edward's shoulder. Stupid grins on their faces as they saw that they were pissing off their Professor. The rest of the students looked on with amusement and waited to see how their Professor would react this time. Edward gritted his teeth as he inquired what exactly the twins wanted.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“We were wondering- “</p><p>“When are you- “</p><p>“Gonna let us perform- “</p><p>“Some transmutations?” The rest of the class was sitting attentively as they were awaiting their Professors' answer as of when they would be able to practice the ability to change items. Edward glared at the twins before shrugging them off with only his left shoulder before walking back to his desk to lean against it. Edward almost scoffed at the thought of allowing his little students to perform transmutations. Sure, they were much older than Edward was when he started doing transmutations, but then again, Edward is somewhat of a genius that can learn an entire field of alchemy within months. Whereas these students struggled to comprehend the basics of alchemy and chemistry even after Edward had dumbed it down as much as he could.</p><p>“Not any time soon, maybe during spring, if I feel like you guys will be able to do it.” The twins along with the rest of the class groaned in displeasure at the fact he wouldn’t be letting them try their hand at transmutations until the end of the year. Edward did consider letting them try before they left for Christmas break, but that was assuming their I.Q managed to raise a decent amount before. The twins let out a huff of disappointment before sitting down in their seats. Edward was just about to start his lecture on the wonders of alchemy until he saw one of his Hufflepuff students raise her hand.</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Professor, when did you start learning alchemy?” Edward frowned at her question and he considered answering it. He realized that if he answered it, then it would open the door for more questions about his history and his reasoning. Decided against his better judgment, he deiced to answer the question, it’s not like he’s going to answer any personal questions anyway.</p><p>“When I was five, why?” The students started to talk among themselves when they learned that their Professor was able to understand alchemy, the same subject that everyone struggles with when he was nearly 11 years younger than them. Edward smirked at their reaction, maybe it would help the non-believers that he was more than qualified to teach them alchemy. It didn’t take long for another hand to shoot into the air and Edward called on him too.</p><p>“How long did it take you to learn alchemy?” Edward crossed his arms across his chest before answering his question, the rest of the students were eagerly listening and waiting for his answer. The twins, in particular, were listening as hard as they could as they realized that they could recruit their alchemy teacher to help them in their antics in school and against Umbridge</p><p>“You never stop learning about alchemy, but I was able to perform transmutations when I was five or six, I’m not sure, I can’t remember.” Again, the students were amazed to hear that their Professor was able to learn and perform alchemy at such a young age. The twins exchanged glances with smiles on their faces as they realized that they had to get Edward to join or at least help them whatever the cost. While Edward was amused by his student’s reactions, he decided to get back on track before more questions caused his class to go off the rails again.</p><p>“Well back on track, so there is something I have yet to tell you guys. The old man has permitted me to kick students out of my class permanently.” Edward ignored the whispering and the concerned looks of the students and continued with a smile on his face. A smile that unnerved everyone in the classroom. After all, anyone would be worried if their Professor told them that they’re able to kick out any students that they don’t find desirable.</p><p>“Alchemy is a dangerous art and I will not teach anyone who has the wrong mindset. I will be the one to determine if you have the wrong mindset with a test. And before any of you freak out, I will give this test this upcoming Friday and the answer will be due next month.” The students started to yell their protests against the test, it was the first week of class, but they quickly quieted down once they heard that they were going to have an entire month to answer the test. Edward watched his students as they looked very confused about the test he was going to have. Fred and George were the first ones to react and even though they were stuttering out mumbo jumbo, they were able to get something out through the combined efforts of both of them</p><p>“You’re gonna- “</p><p>“-Give us a month?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m going to give you and the rest of the alchemy students a month to answer the question, Fred. That’s how much time I was given when I was younger and that is how much time you will get. Make sure to spread the word because I didn’t tell the last class. And just a hint, and it’s the only hint you’re gonna get, spend some time outside, you can’t get an answer from a book.” The rest of the class was quiet, even the twins were quiet and didn’t get up to their usual antics. They calmly sat down in their seats. Concentrated on what Edward was saying as well as what he said about the test (or at least he thinks so). The entire time, Edward stayed seated on the desk instead of walking around the classroom like he usually did. Another twinge of burning pain made Edward regret not bringing his winter automail from home. Then again maybe it would be better to go straight to rush valley to ask for a new set just in case the set doesn’t fit anymore, would she even be wi-</p><p>“Um, Professor, it’s time to go?” Edward was brought out of his stupor when George told him it was time to go. Confused as he thought class didn’t end for another ten minutes flipped open his pocket watch. Only to realize that he had already kept a couple of minutes over time. Looking back up at the students, he realized that all of them were completely packed up and ready to go, they were even standing next to their seats as they waited for Edward to dismiss them.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, you guys are dismissed.” Edward watched the students started to stream out of the room, relieved for the end of the day and ready to go to dinner. When George and Fred along with any stragglers walked out of the class, Edward pushed himself off the desk to go ahead and follow them to dinner. Wincing at the pain in his leg as he did so.</p><hr/><p>The halls were quiet while he walked down the halls. He sighed miserably at the fact that it was barely the end of the week and that he had months to go. Edward blinked in surprise when he saw Harry walking down the halls with a frown on his face while cradling his hand. He stopped and stared at him as he was walking past Edward, not even batting an eye at Edward who was kinda hard not to notice with his dark red jacket and bright blond hair.</p><p>“Harry?” Harry had just come back from his detention with Umbridge and he was not happy. He was already upset that he had to miss the Quidditch tryouts but just the fact that he was walking out with words carved into his skin, made him all sorts of upset. Harry was so focused on making the stone melt with his heated glare, he didn’t notice Edward until a hand was placed on his shoulder. Harry looked up at Edward and was met with the slightly annoyed golden eyes of his Professor. Harry blinked in surprise and looked around, realized that he was completely by himself.</p><p>“Oh, Professor, I was just going to my dorms.” Harry tried to walk away from Edward, in a hurry to get back to his dorm to be with his friends. Unfortunately for him, Edward had noticed the way he was cradling his arm to his chest. Edward reached out and snatched Harry's hand away from him. His eyes narrowing as he saw the nearly carved words on the student’s skin.</p><p>“I must not tell lies. <em>What the fuck?</em>” Harry pulled back his arm with a glare on his face. That glare would have been enough to make another student flinch at the ferocity of it. Edward just sent him a glare that made Harry flinch at the sight of it. Edwards’s brain was going a mile a minute as he tried to remember who exactly Harry had detention with. There was no way in hell he was going to let this happen again</p><p>“Who did you have detention with?” Harry stared at Edward, his jaw locked tight with his pride being the main reason why he doesn’t want to tell anyone about it. Edward realized who gave him detention based on the stare. After all, the only person that Edward knows who Harry hates that much would be a certain pink orientated Professor.</p><p><em>“Fucking bitch</em>.” Harry looked at him curiously as he cursed in his mother tongue. Edward ran his hand through his bangs and tried to think about the next best course of action. Dumbledore had already warned him that Harry is an outstandingly stubborn kid and will probably reject the presence of him. Edward sighed in exasperation and pinched the skin between his eyebrows, of course, this wasn’t going to be a simple mission.</p><p>“You are such a hassle, kid you know that? What was going through the bastards head when he assigned me this mission, I have no clue. But if you are anything like me, you’re too stubborn for your own good.” Harry was taken aback by the word choice. Mission? What does he mean by mission? Harry stared at him, the feeling of fury rising in him as he learned of yet another thing that he was not told.</p><p>“Mission?” Edward noticed the furious look on his client’s face. That look alone made Edward doubt himself. Because surely the person who has a bodyguard assigned to him would know that he was being protected?</p><p>“Yeah- “Edward started slowly before gaining speed. “You really didn’t think that any normal 21-year-old would be a teacher? Didn’t anyone tell you?” He shuffled on his feet uncomfortably, his jaw was tightly clenched, and his brows furrowed in anger.</p><p>“No, they didn’t tell me. What’s the mission?” Edward couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Who in their right mind wouldn’t tell the subject that they were assigned a bodyguard? It makes everyone's lives easier once the client knows. Noticing that Harry was a couple of seconds from raging, he decided to answer him to avoid the mess of an angry teenager.</p><p>“A bodyguard mission, I’m supposed to guard you along with the rest of the school.” His face immediately turned into a face of fury and scorn as he hissed at Edward, fury seething through his words.</p><p>“I don’t need a bodyguard and I don’t wa- “Edward cut him off as he flicked the middle of Harry’s forehead with his right hand. He stopped the beginning of his stupid rant when he grabbed his forehead in pain. He glared at Edward again and this time it pissed him off. Edward smacked the back of Harry's head hard enough where his glasses slid down his face after his head snapped forward.</p><p>“Stop looking at me like that you little shit. It’s not my fault that your precious headmaster thought you needed extra protection because god forbid he wants to make sure that you don’t die. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me, now act the age you think you are and get your shit together.” He still glared at Edward but the fire that was there before wasn’t there now. Edward waved him off with his hand, eager to leave so he wouldn’t have to deal with the ticking time bomb that was Harry Potter.</p><p>“Good, we have an understanding, now go back to your dorm an- “Defiance lit up in his eyes again and Edward growled out.</p><p>“Don’t test me, Potter, I can and will make your life miserable if you make mine. I’m not any happier than you are because I could be back home with my wife and kids but I have to be here taking care of your dumbass. Hurry up and go back to the dorms before you piss me off more.” He gladly took the chance to get away from Edward and walked away with a huff. Edward stared at him until he was out of sight. He ran his hand through his hair with a loud exhausted sigh before saying out loud to the silence of the sleeping castle.</p><p>“Why can’t I just get a normal mission? I could have gotten a mission where I had to do more research but no, I just had to get one where I have to protect some brat at some stupid school hundreds of miles away from home.” He stuck his hands into his pockets and slouched as he walked back to his room grumbling to himself about his woes as an alchemic genius.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Report</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mustang had finally gotten enough free time to sit down and write into the notebook a simple ‘report’. He stared at the book for a little bit longer before placing it down onto the desk. He looked out the window as he waited for the boy’s response. A couple of hundred miles away, Edward woke up after his book vibrating itself off of his nightstand and hit the floor, effectively waking up Edward. Edward blearily opened his eyes a saw the notebook on the ground, he groaned as he realized that Mustang had said something and grabbed the book. He grabbed the pen that was on the nightstand before curling into the blankets. He leaned against the wall as he read it and scoffed at the ‘report’ that appeared in Mustang's handwriting.</p><p>“Can’t a guy get some sleep? What do you want anyway?” Mustang sighed at the response before taking his pen and asking the question that was floating around in his head.</p><p>“How is it going there? What’s this I hear about a pink toad?” Edward groaned at the mention of Umbridge from his earlier report and got off his bed to start getting dressed for the day. Mustang frowned at the sudden silence that was from Edward but with enough time, Edward answered his question.</p><p>“The pink toad is some hag named Umbridge who wears pink all the fucking time. She’s a complete bitch. The first day I met her and she was trying to convince the other teachers that I was a liar before she tried to shoo me out of the room.” Edward paused as he angrily put on his shoes at this point while Mustang stared at the paper with an angry frown. While Mustang was used to the questions and accusations he got about Edward (Such as changing an entire coal cart into gold to buy a mining town.) he was not happy to hear that some lady was trying to treat his subordinate like shit.</p><p>“To make matters worse, she’s some lady from the government so none of the teachers have the balls to stand up to the old bitch. Although I do have to admit it’s fun to annoy her.” Mustang took note of the fury that was Edwards’s voice, well writing, and realized that this was going to be a reoccurring problem as long as the Umbridge is there at the school. Mustang hummed in response before asking a question of his own.</p><p>“What else has she done? Other than annoy you?” Edward shot a glare at the notebook for that last comment before getting to the main point of how the old bitch conducts her detentions.</p><p>“That Harry kid, he had detention with her and came back with the outline of words on his hand. Whatever she is doing, it’s not legal, last time I checked, students shouldn’t come out of detention with ‘I must not tell lies’ inscribed on their hand. I’m already planning to sit in on his next detention with her.” Mustang gritted his teeth in anger at the news. Not only was this lady a government representative, but she was also a woman who abused her power to do whatever she wants. Considering the fact that the pair had just overthrown a government that did the same thing, they weren’t exactly happy to hear that they were in another country with the same problem. Mustang took a glance at the notebook, waiting for Edward to finish writing before writing something of his own, pausing as he realized that he has to tell Edward that Alphonse can join him within the week. Pulling out his watch, he saw that he only had about 15 more minutes before he had to get back to work</p><p>“So, how is it going back home?” Edward sat back down on his bed, looking a little bit odd as he had his white gloves on but not his jacket. Mustang sat on the desk chair before updating Edward on what is going on back home.</p><p>“Well, Gracia and Eliza have been asking for you ever since you left.” Edward sat up straighter at the mention of little Eliza, his surrogate sister. Edward and Alphonse visited the Hughes family every time they were in central right along with Winry and the kids.</p><p>“Really? How are they doing?” Mustang inwardly smiled at his show of affection to the younger blonde. Although he had to admit, the small girl and her antics tend to grow on you.</p><p>“She just had a career day at her school and since Gracia was too busy to go, I sent Hawkeye and the others in her stead.” Edward blinked in surprise before smiling smugly at the notebook before writing wow in response. On the other side, Mustang smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if Edward would be able to see.</p><p>“What? I couldn’t just let her go by herself.”</p><p>“I knew you were a softy, you bastard.” They both sat there in silence, enjoying each other’s paper company. Edward was relieved to hear from someone else from his home country and to read Amestrian again while Mustang was just happy to get a break from Hawkeye's relentless persistence on paperwork. Mustang snapped his fingers in remembrance as he realized that he has yet to tell Edward about the upcoming arrival of his beloved younger brother.</p><p>“That’s right before I forget, Alphonse is going to be joining you within the week.” Before Mustang had even finished writing the sentence, Edward stood up and let out a small whoop before bringing his attention back to the notebook. His excitement was barely contained as he kept on shifting on his feet, a joyful smile on his face. Many things made Edward happy in this world, but nothing made him happy like seeing his brother, especially now that he is back in his original body.</p><p>“When is he going to come?” Mustang was going to tell Edward the answer, but seeing that this would be a perfect time to mess with him, he gladly took the opportunity. Taking out his pocket watch, he saw that it was already time to go. Standing up from the desk chair and taking the notebook in hand, he put a drawing of him giving Edward a two-fingered salute with the words right under it</p><p>“Soon, oh look at the time, I have to go. See you later.” Edwards’s mouth dropped open in surprise as the only person who knew when his brother was coming disappeared. His surprised look turned into one of scowl before muttering some very creative Amestrian curses under his breath.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Excitement</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Snape and Flitwick noticed the wide smile that was on the alchemy Professor’s face and was immediately curious about why exactly their normally angry friend was so happy. They watched Edward as he came up to the table, took his seat, and started to happily serve himself some food, humming as he did so. The two older teachers exchanged glances, silently urging each other to ask the question.</p><p>“So, what’s got you so happy?” Edward smiled widely before answering Flitwick’s question. An act that made every female in the area blush. Edward was already known for his good looks but much to the joy of the women, he had a dazzling smile that only amplified his already good looks. Of course, the men were immune to this (most of them) and simply waited for his answer.</p><p>“My little brother is finally able to come here and help me out. He couldn't come earlier because he was getting over something.” If Edward's smile didn’t catch the attention of the other teachers, the mention of his brother certainly did. No one at the school knew anything about the young Professors' personal life and they were instantly interested. Flitwick leaned forward in his seat, eager to learn something about his youngest colleague.</p><p>“Oh, is your brother also part of the military?” Some of the teachers frowned at the possibility that yet another child could be part of the military. But they were relieved when they saw the look on Edward's face. If there was one thing Edward didn’t let his brother do, it was letting him join the military. Their small family didn’t need both members to be in the military when one is sufficient. The frown of disapproval that was on his face only solidified what they were thinking.</p><p>“No, I didn’t let him join it too. We just usually travel together for my missions and stuff. He got a little bit hurt before I left so I made him stay home until he got better.” The teachers relaxed at the news that the new arrival wasn’t part of the military like the older brother was. But that made the wonder, why didn’t the little brother just stay at home with his parents instead of following his brother around, being in potentially dangerous situations? Before they could overhear Flitwick as the exact question they were wondering. Edward clicked open his pocket watch and said something about getting to class before finishing his food and walking out the door.</p><hr/><p>Harry eyed his Professor as he happily walked around the room. Instead of the usual serious face paired with the slow walking around the room, Edward had a giddy smile and was a lot more fidgety. All of the alchemy students have noticed that Edward couldn’t stay in place for a long time without doing something that involved his hands. That means that if he was sitting at his desk, he would tap the desk with his right hand while reading, or if he was standing, his foot would tap constantly. And it seems as if that particular characteristic was multiplied today as he couldn't stay still sitting or standing.</p><p>“Awfully happy, isn’t he?” Ron muttered this to Harry as they both watched Edward walk around the classroom, happier than they have ever seen him before. Hermione noticed their small conversation and quickly shushed them so she could pay attention and hopefully so they could too. Harry was still a little bit too distracted with last Friday’s conversation he had with his alchemy teacher. He still wasn’t happy about having a bodyguard but after getting talked down by Ron and Hermione, he realized that it was only Dumbledore trying to keep Harry safe. The thought of that made Harry feel a little bit better about Edwards’s presence but he was still angry about the fact that Dumbledore thought Harry couldn’t keep himself safe or that he wasn't trustworthy to tell him what was going on. In the middle of Edwards lecturing, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. The class fell silent at the noise and so did Edward. He wasn’t expecting anyone to come during this class or at all. Walking over to the door, Edward opened the door, already telling the person to fuck off.</p><p>“Whatever it is, I’m sure I don’t care so go away.”</p><p><em>“Wow what a heartfelt welcome, I missed you too brother.”</em> The rest of the class heard the foreign words and frowned at them. Ron and Harry looked at Hermione expectantly, waiting for her to translate for them. They were already nudging her with their feet, asking her what it meant. They didn’t stop until she glared at them and mumbled that she didn’t know the language. Their attention was drawn back to their resident blonde when he broke into a huge smile, pulled the person at the door into a hug, and started to excitedly chatter in the same language. It wasn’t until their teacher pulled the stranger into a hug when they realized that it was someone who had the same hair color as Edward and was around the same height. He did seem to be a little bit smaller in build compared to their teacher.</p><p><em>“Soooo, is this your class?</em>” Alphonse walked into the class wearing slacks, a dress shirt, and a vest. Seeing the two brothers stand side by side, it didn’t take long for the students to realize that they were looking at Edwards’s brother or at least, a close relative. Everyone noticed that Alphonse had an easy-going demeanor and had a softness in his eyes that his older brother didn’t have. Edward heard the whisperings that were going on behind him as the class discussed with each other the new arrival and looked over his shoulder. He almost groaned at the sight of them, he forgot they were still in the room.</p><p><em>“It’s a bunch of 15-year-olds so they’re a bit younger than you, but don’t forget, you’re ‘20’,”</em> Edward emphasized Alphonse’s false age with air quotations, making Alphonse laugh at the sight. He took in the classroom and the occupants, he took in the multitude of students that were sitting in front of him, their different colors, and most importantly, his ward. Through years of practice, he was able to discreetly examine the 15-year-old he was supposed to protect. He noticed with slight disdain that Harry had the same stubborn look that his brother had. Deciding that he had enough with looking at the class, he walked into the classroom and started to look at the presentation notes Edward had written for himself and for anyone who doubts him. Alphonse frowned at the presentation notes, he couldn't believe that Edward was barely at that part.</p><p><em>“Is this seriously all you’ve covered? You’ve been here for two weeks already?”</em> Despite the language barrier, the students picked up the disappointed tone that was in his voice. Edward snorted at his statement and strolled over to Alphonse, plucking the paper in his hands before putting another paper in his hand. A paper that made Alphonse realize that they had their work cut out for them.</p><p><em>“Yeah right, I wish I was covering that, right now, these idiots are struggling to understand the basic rules of chemistry and science. It might be a while before we start with the rules of alchemy.”</em> Sighing heavily, Alphonse put the paper down before giving his brother an exasperated look that was mixed in with some disappointment. Edward nodded grimly at that look, knowing that his brother was also disappointed with how fast these kids were learning alchemy, well chemistry. Alphonse turned around to the class and finally decided to introduce himself. Harry and the other two were having small talk as they tried to figure out who the Elric look-alike is and why he's there at Hogwarts.</p><p>
  <em>“Well everyone has to start somewhere- “</em>
</p><p><em>“If you say so.”</em> Alphonse jabbed his brother’s ribs just hard enough to make him quiet. Edward hid his snickers with a cough.</p><p>“Good morning everyone, my name is Alphonse Elric but you may call me Alphonse or Mr. Elric and this idiot- “A small jab from Edward did not go unnoticed. Some of the students who have gotten jabbed in the ribs before gave him props, he didn't let it affect him, and it looked to be a pretty hard jab. “-you call a teacher is my older brother. I was supposed to come with him in the beginning but I was held up back home.”</p><p>Alphonse's voice was soft and gentle. Something that Edward lacked in most cases. While the students were already starting to like the younger brother, Edward knew that when it comes to alchemy and learning it, his precious little brother became someone else. While Edward would let them have some room for error, very little room he might add, Alphonse didn’t tolerate error. While that attitude was acceptable back in Amestris as alchemic mistakes were never made twice, here in the wizarding school, students weren’t looked down upon for making mistakes as much as they are back home. (Unless you’re talking about potions, that’s a different story.)</p><p>“Now that I’m here to help my brother teach alchemy, everything should move at a faster pace and if you can’t live up to the expectations of both of us, you’re out.” The students felt like Alphonse's demeanor and kind look betrayed his words. Many were hoping that the younger brother wouldn’t be as harsh as his brother but much to their dismay, Alphonse Elric was a little bit more cynical when teaching alchemy when compared to his brother. Edward was just standing off to the side as he felt pity for the students as they had no idea what they are in for.</p><p>“Now then, let’s start.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Alphonse Elric</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Gryffindor students were who returning from alchemy caught the attention of nearly everyone in the common room. The students who were walking in looked dead on their feet, many of them were muttering unintelligible things as they went over the class in their heads. Harry and Ron collapsed onto the couch near the fire while Hermione sat heavily in the armchair. All three of them were mentally exhausted from the single class of alchemy that Alphonse was a part of. Even Hermione and her academic prowess were reeling back from the amount of information that was forced into their heads when the second Elric arrived.</p><p>“Blimey-</p><p>“What happened to- “</p><p>“You guys?” Fred and George were standing over the sofa, poking the soft bodies of Ron and Harry as they inquired what happened. Ron started groaning at the question and covering his face with his hands.</p><p>“Oh, don’t remind me.” Ron smacked away the poking hands of his older brothers before slumping back into the sofa, continuing his tangent.</p><p>“He's bloody mad I tell you. He ought to be fired.” Harry was too mentally exhausted to respond at this point. Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's statement. While she did think it was very hard to keep up with the two brothers who kept on bouncing ideas off of each other and going into small tangents in their native language, it was somewhat manageable. Ok, maybe that’s being too generous.</p><p>“He wasn’t that bad Ronald, stop being so sensitive.”</p><p>“Sensitive!? Hermione, you could barely keep up with him!” Hermione fell silent as she realized that he was right. While Alphonse was somewhat better at explanation than his counterpart, he certainly did not give the students enough time to write everything down before he moved onto the next point. To make matters worse, as the two brothers taught, everything started to move faster and faster as they would take over while the other was writing on the board. The only saving grace is that Neville meekly pointed out that they were going too fast for him to keep up. It wasn’t until then where they noticed that Neville wasn’t the only one who couldn’t keep up. The two of them looked a little bit disappointed that the students were unable to keep up with their pace but accepted it. They ended up repeating what they said for the rest of the class. Fred and George had their attention caught when they heard that Hermione couldn’t keep up but were slightly confused, surely Professor Elric hadn’t been that bad?</p><p>“Professor Elric-”</p><p>“Isn't that hard to keep up with.” Fred finished George's sentence as they both stared at the exhausted 5th years. Harry, showing signs of life again, shook his head at the twins when they said, Professor Elric.</p><p>“No, it wasn’t just Professor Elric his younger brother was supposed to come with him earlier but couldn’t until now. Good god, they are a nightmare together.” The twins perked up at the news of another alchemy teacher, but before they could ask more questions about him. Hermione started to get up and announced that it was time for dinner, of course, the boys being themselves, they weren’t going to refuse the chance.</p><hr/><p>
  <em>“Any news back home?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Mm, Havoc is just about done with his training, he should be getting back on the force within the month.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Really? We should visit him the next chance we get, careful, that tastes like shit.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah, we should visit Mustang while we’re at it, maybe take Winry and the kids along?”</em>
</p><p><em> “Tch, the bastard would just give me a hard time about whatever I did before I visit him -I’m not drinking that Alphonse- It’s his favorite pastime.”</em> Alphonse pouted as he tried to discreetly switch the goblets of milk and pumpkin juice. Alphonse looked up at the enchanted ceiling and despite the scientist in him saying that it should not work like that he couldn’t help but admire it. He looked back at Edward and chuckled at his sour face at the mention of Mustang.</p><p>
  <em>“Brother, we owe a lot to Mustang.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I know, I don’t hate him as much anymore- “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Brother.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Fine I tolerate him now, he’s not that bad.”</em> Alphonse smiled at his small victory and eventually got Edward to smile too. Most of the occupants of the great hall kept on glancing at the brothers and make small talk about both of them. It goes without saying that they noticed the glances and the whispers, but at this point, they didn’t care. They were used to it by now, especially since Al used to be inside some enormous armor, and also because people would stare at Edward openly once they realized that he was the Fullmetal Alchemist. Most of the students were looking at Alphonse in curiosity, he is the only person that can make Edward express other emotions other than his top five. Those five being annoyed, bored, sleepy, tired, and angry. Ever since Alphonse had come, Edward was smiling more often, much to the amazement of the teachers and students alike, well, most of the teachers.</p><p>“Ahem…may I ask who this is?” Edward closed his eyes as he asked a higher being for the strength and patience to deal with the entitled bitch that was standing in front of him. Opening his eyes, he laid his eyes on the smug face of Umbridge. While Edward had been explaining who she is to Alphonse was in his free time, this was the first time he was meeting her. But considering that Edwards’s description was mostly accurate, it didn’t take too long for him to realize who she was.</p><p>“This is my little brother Alphonse, now go away, you’re making me lose my appetite.” Anyone close enough to hear hid their smirk behind their forks or drinks. Somehow, Alphonse was able to hide it perfectly but stayed silent as he let the two hash it out. Umbridge's nostrils flared at the harsh and rude language that Edward used but forced her voice to remain calm and “sweet.”</p><p>“I see, well, might I remind you that I am an official of the ministry, I suggest you watch your words, Professor Elric.</p><p>“Well ‘might I remind you’ that I really don’t give a shit and that you could kiss my ass.” Had it been anyone else, Alphonse would have scolded his brother for talking to someone that way. But he was starting to understand why Edward disliked this woman. Alphonse, hiding his smirk, rose an eyebrow to Edward.</p><p><em>“What? She's sleeping in the bed she made.</em>” Umbridge seemed to take this silent gesture as a sign that Alphonse did not know English. And she, unfortunately, took it upon herself to speak to Alphonse like she would a child and like Edward, Alphonse hated it when he was treated like he was stupid.</p><p>“Does he know English? Can you un-der-stan-d m-e?” Despite the kind smile that was on his face, there was a vein that was dangerously close to bursting. A vein which Edward eyed with a nervous look.</p><p>“Actually, I can understand you perfectly ma’am, however, may I remind you- “Alphonse stood up from his chair and leaned on his heads, giving him a threatening look. Edward backed away from Alphonse because she had officially pissed off Alphonse for treating him like a moron. If there was one thing that was a plus about having a quiet brother, is that people took him very seriously when he got mad. Edwards backing up caught the attention of everyone else that was at the staff table.</p><p>“That my brother and I have grown up in the military ever since Edward became a state alchemist. And I will let you know that we have become very close friends with high-ranking officials. Not to mention that Edward is known as the “Alchemist of the People” back home, so both of us have allies in the public and the government. So, I suggest- Alphonse picked up the knife and drove it into the table with enough force that it stayed standing up. Umbridge turned pale at the sight before flickering her eyes back to Alphonse. “That you watch your words when you speak to either one of us. Because if there is one thing Amestris doesn’t tolerate, it’s the unfair treatment of their favorite alchemist and his family.”</p><p>Edward was proud of his brother for such an aggressive stand but he was also partially scared of his younger brother. The entire hall was as silent as everyone saw what happened, Alphonse kept his eye contact with Umbridge until she said something that unintelligible before stomping off out of the great hall. Alphonse slowly sat down and relaxed and before long, the great hall returned to as normal as normal could be after that situation. Edward scooted closer to Alphonse before whispering.</p><p>
  <em>“Hey, you ok?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No…”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What happened?”</em>
</p><p><em>“…I used too much force with that knife and now my hand really hurts.”</em> Edward looked at his hand and realized that it was all red and was starting to bruise. Alphonse gave him a shy smile. Both of them started to laugh together, drawing some looks from the other patrons. As soon as they calmed down, Edward tried to find out what exactly brought on that behavior.</p><p><em>“So, what exactly was that?”</em> Alphonse started to laugh nervously at his question and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.</p><p><em>“Well, I may have been spending a little bit too much time with Miss Riza. She was worried that people would take advantage of me before I when I went out on the field by myself so she showed me a few things. Not to mention that she was being a complete bitch, I see why you don’t like her.”</em> Edward was taken aback when Alphonse cussed, something he doesn’t normally do. Deciding it would be a good chance to lighten the mood a little bit more, he picked up his fork and lightly poked Alphonse in the arm.</p><p><em>“Who are you and what did you do with my brother?”</em> Alphonse chuckled at this and swatted away Edwards’s hand, much to both parties’ amusement, before admitting.</p><p>
  <em>“Ok, I may have been spending a little bit too much time with Havoc too.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Looks like I’m going to have some words with Havoc next time I see him.”</em> Edward playfully cracked his knuckles for breaking into laughter with Alphonse. Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall, the Weasley siblings, Harry and Hermione were staring at Alphonse in amazement. They would have never expected the kind-looking man to be confrontational with someone that has connections.</p><p>“Blimey…that was amazing.”</p><p>“If that’s our new Professor- “</p><p>“-I don’t mind having him.”</p><p>“Did you hear what he said?” The boys turned to look at the only girl in the group with confused looks on their faces. What was there to say, the second Elric stood up to Umbridge and scared her off. Hermione noticed this and rolled her eyes in slight annoyance.</p><p>“Honestly, you didn’t hear him say that they are friends with high-ranking officials. Or that Professor Elric is favored by the people?”</p><p>“He could be bluffing.” The twins nodded along with Ron’s prediction. It wouldn’t have been the first time where someone bluffs to intimidate someone and it certainly won’t be the last. It was a plausible theory, but there was something about it that made her believe that they were telling the truth.</p><p>“I don’t think he’s bluffing, I mean look at the both of them, Professor Elric freely cusses at her while Alphonse isn’t scared to threaten her, I don’t think they are bluffing.” Hermione looked at Harry in relief, at least one of them had enough sense to realize that the Elric brothers were too bold for them to be bluffing. After all, all it takes is one wrong word and they could either be exposed or have the support they say they have. The others realized Harry's point and quickly agreed with him.</p><p>“Well- “Ron started, his eyes on the smiling brothers that were exchanging small talk at the staff table.</p><p>“I hope you’re right, for all of our sakes.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Gift</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Phew, kinda cold out here isn’t it?”</p><p>“Yeah, it's almost always cold here. We’re gonna have to buy some winter jackets soon.” Alphonse followed his brother out to the Quidditch field to start the morning practice that happens every morning. Both of them were all wrapped up in their coats and sweatpants to stay nice and warm. The two of them did some simple warm-up exercises before running some laps around the field, sparring right after. They only stopped sparring when Edward was blinded by the light of the rising sun, letting Alphonse grab Edward's arm and throw him over his shoulder onto the ground. After Edward just laid there, breathing hard for more than a minute, Alphonse joined him by laying behind him, his head right behind Edwards.</p><p>“So, how did you get here so fast?” Edward paused as he took in deep breathes, trying to regulate his breathing. Alphonse did the same and took a deep breath before answering.</p><p>“Havoc and miss Riza helped me to get everything together before professor Snape picked me up.” Edward scoffed and realized that they owed the two of them.</p><p>“Remind me to get the get the two of them some gifts.”</p><p>“What about Mustang? He was the one that helped us out with everything.” Edward fell silent at the mention of giving Mustang a gift. While they had become friends, it wasn’t part of their dynamic to show affection for each other. Alphonse realized this and leaned on his elbow to poke his brother’s cheek.</p><p>“Come on Edward, we both know that we were able to do everything because of him, the least you can do is get him something,” Edward grumbled as he realized that he was right and Edward did not like to owe anyone favors. Then he started to think that it would be kinda hard to get the man who is a high military official something that he doesn’t have.</p><p>“Well, what am I supposed to get him? He has almost everything now that he's a General.” Edward swung his legs up and got back onto his feet. He lugged up Alphonse while he thought over the question. Alphonse did hum in acknowledgment and walked with him back into the school. Now that he thinks about it, magic should be able to do anything right?</p><p>“Do you think magic can make some stuff waterproof?” Edward was taken aback by the random question before he started to think about it. Now that he does think about it, he has heard professor Flitwick talk about how he makes his coats waterproof and durable to save more money.</p><p>“Probably, I've heard Flitwick talking about it so I w-Ohhhh, I know where you're going. You want me to send Mustang a pair of waterproof gloves so he stops being so worthless when wet?”</p><p>“Yup, do you think Flitwick will be willing to do it?” Edward nodded immediately, from what he saw, professor Flitwick is a kind man that doesn’t mind helping other people out.</p><p>“Yeah, he's a good guy, let's ask him right now during breakfast?”</p><p>“Sounds like a plan.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Um, Professor Flitwick?” Flitwick paused in lifting the fork to his mouth to look at Edward. He took note of Edward's flushed cheeks and the red tips of his ears. He frowned in confusion, was he embarrassed?</p><p>“Yes, professor Elric?” Edward refused to meet his eyes as he asked the favor. He was looking off to the side while scratching his cheek with his index finger. Behind him, Alphonse sighed in defeat. Edward wasn’t always the best at asking for favors, especially to people they don’t know that well.</p><p>“Could I- “Alphonse jabbed him with his elbow to remind him that he wasn’t the only one who was asking.</p><p>“I mean we, could we ask you for a favor?” Flitwick blinked in surprise, was this why he, the man who was so headstrong, was so nervous? Edward was patiently waiting for his answer, getting somewhat nervous that he wasn’t going to say yes based on his silence.</p><p>“Oh yes, of course, what do I have to do?” Edward smiled in relief before taking out the pair of white gloves they transmuted earlier. It was relatively simple to create a pair of incendiary gloves. They just had to inspect the pair of gloves that Hawkeye gave them (it had happened many times where Mustang lost or ripped his pair while on a mission ) and then transmute a pair of incendiary gloves.</p><p>“I was wondering if you could cast a spell that could make these gloves waterproof? You see, these gloves are designed to create a spark when you snap your fingers together, but it loses its purpose as soon as it gets wet.” Flitwick was almost surprised by the simple request. The last couple of times he had done a favor, he had to jump through some hoops to get it done. Smiling, he grabbed the pair of gloves and quickly cast the charm to make it waterproof before handing it back to him with a smile.</p><p>“Here you go.” Edward smiled before taking off his left glove and trying it out. He was happy to see that it would still create sparks even after being doused in pumpkin juice. He turned to Alphonse with a victorious smile before remembering to show his gratitude.</p><p>“Oh, thank you, professor.”</p><p>“It was no problem, although, may I ask what they are for.” Edward started to blush again as he tried to admit that they were going to be a gift for one of his friends that had done a lot for him and his little brother.</p><p>“Oh, it's just a gift…” Alphonse overheard him and rolled his eyes before leaning forward to see the smaller professor to explain completely why they had him waterproof the gloves. That’s the least they could do for him.</p><p>“We owe a lot to Edwards commanding officer and he tends to use those types of gloves a lot but can’t once they get wet. So, to show our thanks, we’re gonna send it to him.”</p><p>“Al!” Edward turned slightly redder as his true purpose was revealed, there was just something about being thoughtful to others that made Edward embarrassed. Flitwick had almost forgotten that Edward was part of the military of his home country, but it made him happy to know that his superior officer helped out the younger boys during Edwards’s career.</p><p>“I see, well I suggest you hurry and send it off to home before the owls leave for the day.” The two of them nodded in agreement before finishing their breakfast, showing their gratitude once more, and then leaving to go and find the owlery. Oddly enough, during one of Edwards’s random explorations, he had found himself in the owlery with a student. So, from that odd and awkward interaction where he had to get directions back. He was able to learn how to send a letter using an owl.</p>
<hr/><p>“Is that another owl?” Mustang was in his office, but his doors were open so the rest of the squad was able to hear him when he was questioning the owl that was by the window. It had been certainly interesting to open the window the first time Dumbledore sent an owl and by this point, he shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Mustang opened up the window and allowed the owl in and fly around after taking the slightly lumpy letter it had. Fuery started to keep some pieces of jerky ever since the first time it came and feed the owl while Mustang was reading the letter. Mustang recognized the messy handwriting of Edward with the neater handwriting of Alphonse right below it as an effort to make it clear who the letter was for. Mustang opened up the letter and took out the gloves? He looked at the gloves and noticed that they were a pair of Edwards’ gloves but there was something different about them. He finally took out the letter to read what was going on.</p><p>What’s up bastard, here are some waterproof ignition gloves. One of the professors here put a spell on it to make it waterproof so now you won’t be so worthless in rain.</p><p>~Edward</p><p>Mustang looked at the gloves in surprise and sure enough, he recognized the familiar grittiness the gloves had. He looked back at the letter and noticed Alphonse's much neater handwriting right below it.</p><p>Good morning General Mustang. What brother means to say that we are gifting you these gloves as a thank you for everything you have done for us. We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish our goals without your assistance. While they are a pair of Edwards’s gloves, you will be able to transmute the fabric to your liking without affecting the waterproof seal the gloves have. Again, thank you very much for everything you have done for us.</p><p>~Alphonse Elric.</p><p>      P.s that is the closest thing to a thank you, you are getting from brother.</p><p>Mustang smiled at the end of the letter. He knew Edward had a hard time showing his affection to anyone but his brother and knew that Edward truly did mean thank you. He put on the gloves. While Edward's palm is smaller than Mustangs, his fingers are longer so he had to transmute the glove to fit him. Once he did, he was pleased to see that the gloves truly were waterproof ignition gloves. The only thing that was missing was the transmutation circle that allowed him to use his alchemy. Hawkeye walked in to let the owl out and noticed the smile that was on his face.</p><p>“Sir?” Mustang looked up from his gloved hands before taking them off and putting them away, the smile still on his face.</p><p>“Oh, it’s nothing Hawkeye, it’s just a gift…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Detention Again</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry did a double-take when he saw Alphonse standing in the back of the room with a smile on his face. It was his second detention with Umbridge and Harry was slightly confused as to why his Professor’s brother was there. Well, he was confused until he remembered that Edward was his bodyguard so his brother must be there for the same reason as well. Looking at Umbridge, she was a little bit less than happy that her detention was being supervised, of course, that was based on the way her nostrils were flaring so it was just an assumption. Harry sat down at the desk and waited for the toad to give him the wretched quill he has become too familiar with.</p><p>“Well, what are you waiting for? Take out your quill!” Harry stared up at her with false confusion on his face, might as well make her look like a fool while he’s at it</p><p>“But Professor, you told me not to bring anything?” Withholding a growl, she opened her desk, producing ink and a quill before placing them before Harry as calmly as she could before telling him in a rough voice to write. Harry gladly obliged, happy that it was a normal quill. After a couple of minutes, Umbridge turned to Alphonse with a snooty look on her face.</p><p>“See, nothing is going on here, you may go.” Harry wrote his lines while listening intently and based on the way Alphonse’s voice sounded, he was smiling.</p><p>“You must take me for some kind of idiot ma’am. After nine years of traveling with my brother, helping him break up crime rings of all sorts, I know a lie when I hear one, you’re doing a sorry job of hiding your true intentions.” Harry withheld a snicker at his tone of voice and kept on writing his lines while listening. Umbridge took a sharp breath before forcing herself to calm down.</p><p>“Well then, I order you to leave my office as a member of the ministry.”</p><p>“While I would love to leave this…creatively…colored room, I’m afraid I can’t, I was ordered by a member of the Amestrian military to accompany Mr. Harry Potter for the duration of his detention and then escort him back to his dorms to ensure his safety. Furthermore, as a citizen of Amestris and as a temporary member of the Amestrian military, you do not have the authority or dictate my actions whatsoever. Now that we have gotten that over with, shall we leave this conversation be?”</p><p>Alphonse gave a sweet smile to Umbridge while she was struggling to keep her composure while she accepted defeat to the younger man. Inwardly, Harry was glad that Alphonse was on his side and that he was able to shut up Umbridge in a dignified manner. Alphonse leaned against the wall as he watched Harry and pretended not to notice the glares of Umbridge. Officially, Alphonse was Edwards’s personal assistant that was hired every other month when people came along and questioned Alphonse’s certifications and qualifications to be involved in certain cases. Alphonse noticed with great relief that Harry’s detention was nearly up. Umbridge had calmed down a tab bit but was still sneaking glares at him.</p><p>“Well then, I think that’s enough for today.” Harry looked up as his Professor took away his paper and quill before sending him out of her office and locking the door behind him. They both sighed in relief at the same time before looking at each other. Alphonse smiled, happy that he wasn’t the only one who was glad to get the hell out of there.</p><p>“Honestly, I don’t know how my brother has managed to keep everything civil between the two of them.” Alphonse shook his head in disbelief, surprised that his brother was able to withhold himself from beating the crap out of her for so long. Harry stared at Alphonse in confusion and quickly caught up with him when he started to walk away.</p><p>“Civil? I don’t think you would call their interactions civil.” Alphonse laughed at this, oh how innocent this child is when it comes to the ways of Edward.</p><p>“No, it’s civil for him at least, back home, he probably would have threatened her a couple of times already. Now if she was a man, he would have taught her a lesson with his fists just for pissing him off.” Harry frowned at this. He didn’t think his teacher could get any more violent than his rude remarks and snarky comebacks. If anything, he seemed like a raging asshole.</p><p>“If you don’t mind me asking, why was Professor Elric the one who was picked for me? I mean there had to be a better choice?” Alphonse thought out his question. Of course, there were a lot of older and more diplomatic state alchemists but none of them had the same type of experience Edward had.</p><p>“Mmm yes and no. in the terms of more respectful state alchemists, there are a lot more. But Edward was the only one who could teach alchemy in this case. While the other state alchemists specialize in only one field of alchemy, brother knows almost every field of alchemy and if he doesn't know it, he can learn it in a couple of months. He was the best choice to come here and teach. Not to mention he’s one of the best in hand to hand combat artists in the military, so he was the only choice.” Harry’s mouth dropped open at the news that his young Professor was an alchemist genius. Alphonse noticed his face and chuckled at the sight. Harry closed his mouth when he noticed it was hanging open.</p><p>“So, he’s some type of genius?” Alphonse shook his head at this.</p><p>“He's not some type of genius, he is one. It’s how he entered the military when he was 12. In most cases, he wouldn’t have been allowed to join the military, but there was no age limit on the state alchemist exam. So, he studied for a couple of months, took the exam, passed, and became a state alchemist.” Harry reeled back from the amount of information that was given to him. While his professor was an arrogant asshole that many could barely tolerate, he had the smarts and skills to back it up.</p><p>“Wait, when did you join the military?” Alphonse smiled shyly and rubbed the back of his head embarrassed. He had gotten this question so often, he didn't mind anymore. It’s just a side effect of traveling with someone who is in the military all the time.</p><p>“Oh, I’m not part of the military, brother didn’t let me take the exam with him. Told me that there was no need for both of us to be part of the military and insisted that it was his job as my older brother.” Harry nodded his head in understanding. Everything was starting to make sense and he was finally able to understand at least one part of his life. Although he was a little bit surprised by Edward's show of affection. Yeah, he knew that Edward was going to care for his brother, but he wouldn’t think that Edward would take that type of burden on him. Dismissing the thought, Harry asked another question.</p><p>"Do you think you would have passed the exam?” Alphonse nodded his head at this. Just because he wasn't a state alchemist doesn't mean he wasn't smart enough to make the cut.</p><p>"Yeah, I could of, Edward just didn't let me take the exam." Alphonse decided to leave out the entire problem that he was missing a body and that he was just a soul connected to some armor because that would be a little bit more than awkward trying to explain</p><p>“Well, here we are.” Harry blinked in surprise as he realized that they were already standing right in front of the fat lady. Time goes by much faster when you have someone to spend it with. Alphonse was already wishing Harry a goodnight before he thought to ask one more question.</p><p>“Wait, if you’re not part of the military, then why are you here?” Alphonse stared at him in surprise at the sudden question before answering it with a smile.</p><p>“Oh, I usually accompany brother on his missions and help him out. But if you need to know, formally I’m his personal assistant, but that’s only on paper. Well, goodnight!” Alphonse waved goodbye before walking away from Harry. Harry stood there, watching him as he walked around a corner, going deeper into the school. Despite the willingness of Alphonse to answer his questions, he can’t help but think that there is something else about them. He can’t put his finger on it, but there was just something about them that’s off…</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Assessment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>“What the fuck is an educational decree?”</em> The two brothers stared up at the plaque that was nailed onto the wall. Reading over it carefully as they saw that it gave certain pink Professor privileges. Any other students who were walking to breakfast noticed the two of them staring at the wall and quickly joined them to see what was going on. Anyone who read it was already voicing their protests within 20 seconds.</p><p>
  <em>“Brother?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Why can’t our missions ever be simple and easy to do?”</em>
</p><p><em>“I’ve asked myself that for the past seven years Alphonse.”</em> The two brothers stared up at the frame in annoyance. Only stopping when Edward groaned in frustration and walked away from it, muttering obscenities under his breath. Alphonse looked up at the frame one more time before chasing after his brother and patted his back in a comforting way. They walked up to the staff table and plopped themselves down onto their seats and continued their day. Making small talk with the nearby Flitwick and Snape, they only stopped when they saw the daily influx of mail.</p><p>“It really is amazing huh brother? How those owls know who to deliver the mail to and also where they are?” Edward looked at the different owls as they circled the tables and delivered their mail, getting a snack from anyone who offers it and then continuing with their day.</p><p>“Yeah, it is pretty amazing…don’t even ask.” Alphonse groaned as he realized that he was being too obvious in his attempt to gain a pet once again. Edward smirked into his pumpkin juice as he realized that he was right about his dear brother. The two brothers looked up when they heard the flapping of wings above them to see what looks like a bigger version of a barn owl let go of a pink envelope. It slowly drifted down to them as the owl flew away.</p><p>“Oh! Mail!” Alphonse grabbed the envelope out of the air and read it excitedly. Edward raised an eyebrow when he saw the small smile that was on his face deflate into a frown before he gave it to Edward.</p><p>“Oh…Mail.” His voice was full of disappointment and looked at Edward with an interested stare. Turning over the letter, he was just as happy as a child would to receive coal for Christmas. It was from Umbridge and it was a letter that politely informed the alchemy Professors that according to the latest educational decree, she was allowed to assess teachers and she was going to do exactly that same day during the class with the 5th years. Edward set it down when he finished reading it and took a couple of deep breaths.</p><p>“Ed?” Alphonse was looking at him with a worried look as he was able to see the telltale signs of an impending explosion from Edward. Without saying anything, he stood up from his chair and stomped towards the exit. The uneven stomps sounded through the great hall as he did so, drawing the looks of students and teachers alike.</p><p>“Is he- “Flitwick and the rest of the school flinched as Edward slammed the door behind him.</p><p>“Alright?” Alphonse held up a hand for him to wait. Before long, everyone jumped as they heard the Amestrian curses that Edward screamed into the air, none of them were able to understand him, save for Alphonse, who merely laughed nervously at what his brother said.</p><p><em>“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! ALL I WANT IS AN EASY MISSION FOR ONCE BUT NOOOO BECAUSE FUCK ME! FUCK ME AND FUCK THIS BULLSHIT AND FU…”</em> His voice was slowly drowned out as he walked away from the great hall and went somewhere else. The great hall slowly returned to a normal noise level as they discussed what they just heard. Many of them noticed the pink envelope that was clenched in his gloved hand as he walked out of the hall.</p><p>“Now he’ll be alright, just give him some time.” Flitwick nodded in agreement while looking at the closed wooden door. He looked down at his own pink envelope and opened it up to read what was inside. Alphonse noticed this and looked at him attentively, waiting for him to finish so he could ask what it was. Once Flitwick finished, he shook his head at the news it bore.</p><p>“I think I understand what happened. According to the new educational decrees, Professor Umbridge is allowed to assess Professors while in class. According to this notice, I’m going to be assessed today during my 7th-year class.” Alphonse nodded in understanding before he realized that it would be in his best interest to go and help his brother calm down so they could make a plan. The last thing they need is the lady deeming them as incompetent. Shoving the rest of his food into his mouth, he grabbed his jacket off the chair, saying a quick goodbye to Flitwick and Snape before running out of the room. Flitwick stared at the younger man as he ran out.</p><p>“What a particular pair of brothers.”</p><hr/><p>Harry walked into his alchemy class and flinched at the murderous look that was on the older Elric face. Ron noticed this and had the same reaction when he saw their Professor. He was sitting at his desk with his arms crossed and was staring at the opposite wall with the intent to kill. Setting their stuff down, they started to whisper to each other.</p><p>“Awfully mad, isn’t he? What do you think has got him so worked up?” Harry glanced at the fuming Professor and then at Alphonse who was calmly writing the current lesson on the board.</p><p>“I don’t know, his brother seems to be fine though.” Their whispering came to an end when Edward got up and closed the door. The murderous look on his face has subsided to one of just annoyance and frustration. They held their breath as they waited for him to start the class.</p><p>“Alright everyone, we got bad news and we got worse news. For our bad news, absolutely no one has either attempted or solved the riddle, you guys only have two more weeks’ now-” Hermione deflated at the mention of her failure and so did some of the Ravenclaws. </p><p>“And for the worse news, our favorite pink Professor is going to sit in our class today to ‘assess’ the two of us.” Edward used air quotations when he said that and still had a foul look on his face. Some of the students muttered under their breaths and did a pretty good job at hiding their exasperated groans.</p><p>“Anyways, since we aren’t using the same lesson plan, or whatever the fuck you call it, that your corrupted government gave us. We probably aren’t going to get a lot done today with pinky sitting in today, Soooo, I don’t know, sit there, and enjoy the show? There isn’t a lot you could do otherwise.” The students blinked in surprise as they realized that as he kept on talking, he started to calm down more and more. At this point, he wasn’t even mad anymore, he was just annoyed more than anything. Alphonse noticed this and was relieved to see that he was calming down. Although he knew full well that as soon as Umbridge walks into the room, his anger is going to spike once again. With that, they started the class. As usual, they lectured, only stopping to write down names and titles on the board so the students could spell them correctly. Today, they were simply going over the different types of elements on the periodic table and the patterns they had. Such as the heaviest, how it was arranged in terms of electronegativity, valence electrons, power levels, reactivity, stability, the works. As always, the students struggled to keep up and wrote down all types of notes in their textbooks, who knew pencils were so convenient? The classroom was starting to get into the zone and went with the flow that was normal in the classroom. The flow was interrupted when someone knocked on the classroom door. Edward looked over at the door with a glare of death.</p><p>“Would it be appropriate of me to use alchemy to make the door disappear?” Surprisingly, it was Alphonse who said it. The sentence made a small smile appear on Edward's face before he replaced it with his scowl again.</p><p>“No Alphonse, it wouldn’t. Ugh, let's get this over with.” He opened the door and considered closing it in her face just to annoy her but decided against it, there was no need for her to start her bullshit so early. He muttered a greeting before walking back to the desk, leaving her by the door. Edward didn’t give her a chance to announce her reasoning to be there to boost her ego, instead, he started his lecture again. Umbridge frowned at this before walking in and closing the door behind her. She was already writing down on her clipboard Edwards’s persistence show of disrespect towards people of higher authority. (She always seems to forget that she doesn’t have authority over the brothers)</p><p>Umbridge walked around the classroom as they lectured, taking note of the odd writing utensils, and the notes they were taking. Flipping to the alchemy lesson plan she had with her, she realized that what they were talking about had nothing to do with the lesson plan that was given to them. Standing behind one of the students at the back, she took the textbook away from the student, checked the title, and upon seeing the completely foreign name that was on the title, she promptly gave it back to the student (She was NOT happy about it getting taken away.) she wrote down all the violations on the clipboard before voicing her concerns.</p><p>“Ahem, Professor Elric, the students do not have the assigned textbook, why is that?” Edward was writing drawing the Bohr model of hydrogen on the board when she asked and did not stop.</p><p>“Because it’s wrong, I gave them some translated alchemy textbooks from my country instead.” She fell silent and referred to her papers as she tried to find another fault.</p><p>“You are not following the lesson plan that was given to you.” Edward finished the Bohr model and cleaned his hands of the dust before turning around to look at her, his hands on his hips.</p><p>“Yeah, got a problem about it?” She bristled at the rough language that was used towards her. She was a member of the magic of ministry and deserved the respect that came with the title. But deciding that she could find more faults, she continued.</p><p>“Your teachings are not in accordance with the assigned lesson plan, you must fix this at once.” Alphonse was standing off at the side, letting his brother take care of her, he would only step in if she started to pull the superiority bullshit again. While Edward was pretty good at setting people in their place, this was one of the few cases where he couldn’t do that himself and keep it civil at the same time.</p><p>“You can take that lesson plan and shove it up your pink ass. I’m not using that, its shit, end of discussion.” Despite the fact that she wasn’t familiar with those terms, she could still tell that they were muggle curses based on the tone that he used. She sputtered at the way he addressed her and struggled to keep her voice calm and level.</p><p>“I must insist you follow the assigned lesson plan. What you are teaching the student is wrong and it is not alchemy, it is merely a bastardization of true alchemy.” The students and women alike noticed the effect her words had. The previously calm and serious Alphonse who was leaning against the wall was standing straight up now. His posture already changing to one of a threatening posture, a face of fury. He wasn’t even trying to hide it at this point. Edward was leaning against his desk, his hand gripping the corner tightly as he tried to restrain himself. His hair was covering his face as he spoke.</p><p>“Excuse me, I don’t think I heard you right, did you just say that we, some of the top alchemists in the entire fucking country of Amestris, do not know true alchemy?” The cracking of wood filled the air as Edward broke off the piece of the desk he was holding onto with his automail hand. Harry's eyes widened at his Professors show of strength and fury. Edward looked at the piece of wood before tossing it onto the desk, Hermione felt a wave of fear wash over her when she saw his face. Being the only one who saw him, she was the only one who was truly afraid of what was coming next. The face of fury that Edward had at the beginning of class would be a joke compared to the face he had right now. She would even go as far as to say that it was like comparing a match to a wildfire. Umbridge noticed the effect her words had and started to sweat nervously, but was determined in her statement.</p><p>“That’s right, what you are teaching a sorry excuse of alchemy.” The students held their breath as they realized that the chances of Umbridge leaving the room in a body bag is just increased exponentially. Edward looked up at her with a glare that could kill a person. The look on his face alone made the students shuffle away from him. He stood up straight and walked towards her, his every step echoing throughout the room as every pair of eyes as he walked towards her. Umbridge backed up from him as he got closer and eventually back up into the wall that was behind her. He towered over her and looked at her.</p><p>“You ever say that again, and I don’t care if I’m here to unite the fucking world. I’ll kick your ass to the point where even your fucking magic won’t be able to save you. Now. Get. Out.” Umbridge took a shaky breath before scrambling to get out of Edward's range and practically sprinted to the door. She tried to say something to affirm her authority once more but was too much of a nervous wreck to do so. She slammed the door on the way out and left the class in very awkward silence. The rest of the class continued in a tense undertone. None of the students asked any questions as the brothers continued, the two of them gradually calming down as the class continued.  </p><p>“Class is dismissed.” If the class already wasn’t quiet enough to hear a mouse fart, they would have never heard him. Many of the terrified students gladly took the chance to leave before his anger was redirected onto them. The students of that class all silently made an oath to themselves and each other as they quickly evacuated the classroom. That oath was to ever, under whatever circumstance, never ever, piss off Edward Elric. Because anyone who does is going to have the wrath of hell on their hands.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. The Power of the Press</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bulging envelope made a loud noise when it was dropped onto the table by the owl. The surrounding students jumped at the sudden noise before they were able to hear the excited gasp of Hermione. Hermione excitedly grabbed the envelope, gave the owl a decent-sized piece of bacon before she started to open it up. Ron and Harry looked at the envelope with wide eyes.</p><p>“Blimey Mione, what’s in there?” Hermione didn’t answer his question as she started to pull out foreign newspaper clippings along with printed out articles. Harry picked up one of the newspaper clippings and tried to read it, keyword being tried, but the picture of his Professor did not go unnoticed. He frowned at it and Ron looked over his shoulder while he asked Hermione what exactly is going on.</p><p>“What is all this?” Hermione moved her plate out of the way before spreading the newspaper clippings out and casting a translation spell, slowly the words rearranged themselves into English.</p><p>“I asked my parents to send me everything they could find on Professor Elric. While Amestris doesn’t have anything with the internet, there are still journalists that travel there and write articles on what’s going on there and- “She picked up a newspaper clipping that was now in English and showed it to them. In big bolded letters printed across the page, it read “THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SAVES CENTRAL!”</p><p>“This is what they sent me. Granted they couldn’t get a lot of information due to the language barrier and the distance between us, however, I’m positive we’ll be able to learn why he was assigned to you- “</p><p>“Hermione! Get to the point?” Hermione blushed before she realized that she was rambling earlier. Students sitting around them started to notice the clippings and were looking over their shoulders, asking what was going on. Hermione looked around and realized that if she was going to start explaining it here, everyone would hear. But at the same time, she believed that the students had the right to know what their teachers did to end up in a newspaper so she continued. Turning the paper around, she started to read it out loud.</p><p>“Edward Elric, also known as The Fullmetal Alchemist due to his expertise on metal and earth alchemy, accomplished his first mission after detaining Isaac McDougal, also known as The Freezing Alchemist.” More and more students started to pay attention as Hermione read, while the rest of the great hall and anyone out of the hearing range went along with their morning, they were discovering some important stuff.</p><p>“Isaac McDougal had rebelled against the Amestrian Military and launched an elaborate plan to make the citizens of Central City suffer. Through the combined efforts of Roy Mustang, Fullmetal’s superior officer and The Flame Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong, The Strong-Arm Alchemist, several other officers, Fullmetal himself as well as his younger brother, Alphonse Elric, they were able to detain McDougal, leading to the first successful mission of Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist and the youngest state alchemist in Amestrian history at age 12.” Hermione finished reading the short newspaper clip before putting it down and looking at Harry and Ron with wide eyes. They were all staring at each other with their mouths hanging open. Any students that were close enough to hear were already starting to pass the word down the table, but they ignored this in favor of grabbing more newspaper clips, reading the titles out loud, and showing the pictures to each other. More often than not, it was a picture of Edward from a distance with his red coat and Alphonse (they didn’t know it was Alphonse) next to him.</p><p>“Terrorists thwarted by the Fullmetal Alchemist?”</p><p>“Edward Elric Captures Serial Killer?!”</p><p>“Edward Elric, the Alchemist of the People?”</p><p>“Wait, look at the date on this one!” Hermione held up the original newspaper clipping and pointed at the date. It was only seven years old and seemed to be the first news of Professor Elric…wait, seven years ago?</p><p>“I thought you said that he was 21?” Ron whispered to Harry, his head low to the table just in case anyone hears them. The three of them huddled closer together.</p><p>“He told me that he was 21!”</p><p>“Obviously he was lying to you! According to this, he’s only 19, he’s barely of age!” Hermione gasped at the prospect of her alchemy teacher lying to the ministry of magic. She turned to look at the alchemy Professor and his brother as they sat at the staff table. She watched him as he widely yawned and served himself some coffee, his brother next to him leaning his head on his palm, falling asleep. The three students were already completely staring at them and some of the other students started to join them. More and more students started to whisper and stare at them as the news traveled up and down the table. Edward was in the middle of raising the cup to his lips when he felt the familiar chill of being watched run down his spine. He narrowed his eyes as he set down his cup, looking around the room for the people that were watching him. He noticed with suspicion that all of a sudden, most of the Gryffindor table was looking away at him and was staring at the front door instead. While they tried to turn around, the infamous trio didn’t do it fast enough for him to not notice. He noticed with slight interest that the students were passing around slips of paper before turning to look at him for a brief second. He pushed his chair back and made his way to the Gryphindors table. Alphonse woke up just in time to see him walk away.</p><p>“Brother?” Edward walked over to the table just in time to pluck a paper straight from a third years hands, Alphonse was already looking over his shoulder, reading what he had in his hand. Hermione, Ron, and Harry watched Edward with horror, surprised that he was able to notice what was going on so quickly. Hermione let out a small ‘eep’ when the Elric’s looked straight at them and turned around, trying to put away the papers. Harry and Ron started to help her but froze when a gloved and bare hand took the paper from their hands. They looked up at the Elric’s as they flipped through the papers, frowns becoming more apparent the longer they did it. </p><p>“See! This is why I didn’t want them to publish anything about me but nooo, the military needed the publicity.” Alphonse sighed in defeat before setting a hand on Edward's shoulder in a comforting way. Edward sighed before pointing over his shoulder with his thumb.</p><p>“You three, my office, now.”</p><hr/><p>Edward looked over the mass collection of clippings and articles as the trio stood in front of him. Alphonse was leaning against the desk right next to him and looked over his shoulder, looking at the clippings as well. Edward would periodically pull out a clipping, show it to Alphonse with a comment something along the lines of ‘I didn’t know they reported this’. This continued for a couple of minutes before he sighed and set the papers down on the desk. The students squirmed as they stood under the gaze of the Elric’s. It was like that for a while until Edward said something.</p><p> “So, what do you want to know?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>Harry voiced their confusion for them. They were expecting to get yelled at. To get lectured for looking into his personal life. The last thing they were expecting was to be offered the chance to ask questions.</p><p>“You heard me, what do you wanna know? It would be better to ask us than getting your answers from something like this…how did you get these anyway?” Ron and Hermione turned to look at Hermione, who squirmed under their gazes before answering the expectant Elric’s.</p><p>“My parents are muggles an-”</p><p>“Muggles?”  Alphonse interrupted her at the unfamiliar word. The three of them looked confused when he asked them the question. Like they weren’t expecting him to ask that.</p><p>“Wait, you don’t know what muggles are?” Edward groaned and rolled his eyes at Ron’s stupid question, an action that made him turn bright red.</p><p>“Would we be asking if we knew what ‘muggles’ are?” The three of them looked at each other. The realization dawning on them as they realized that their Professors, that are standing in their magical school, in front of two wizards and a witch, are muggles.</p><p>“You guys don’t know how to do magic?” Edward frowned at his unanswered question before growling out.</p><p>“No, we don’t, we didn’t even hear of it until a couple of months ago. You wanna answer my question before I hit you guys?”</p><p>“Muggles are people who can’t do magic. But back on topic, you’re my bodyguard that’s a muggle?” The brothers looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders.</p><p>“Well yeah, the only thing the old man asked for was an alchemist that could fight and teach, and here we are. Is there something they didn’t tell us?” Edward was already starting to get mad. Information or the lack of had gotten the brothers in trouble more than once as they ran into something headfirst or into a situation they thought they knew everything about. The students started to panic at this moment as they realized that they indeed have two muggle Professors that didn’t seem to know anything about the magical world.</p><p>“Do you know who Voldemort is?” Ron and Hermione flinched at the mention of him, causing them to get weird looks from the Elric’s but they nodded.</p><p>“Yeah, they told me who he was when they assigned me the mission as well as your relationship to him, Alphonse wasn’t there with me but I gave him the report summary along with my explanation once he got here. Again, what’s the problem with us being ‘muggles’?” Edward used air quotations as he said the word muggles and stood there expectantly while he waited for the answer. They looked at each other as they urged each other to answer him. After Edward sighed heavily before tapping his foot loudly to remind them that he was still waiting, Harry was the one who answered him.</p><p>“Well, sir, it’s illegal for muggles to know about magic.” The both of them stood up a little bit straighter at the word illegal.</p><p>“Wait, are you telling me, that it’s illegal for the two of us to know about magic? While we are working here, at a school for future witches and wizards?” The three of them nodded in confirmation. Edward and Alphonse looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders in dismissal, much to the amazement of the trio.</p><p>“Eh, wouldn’t be the first time we broke a law or two.” Their mouths dropped open at the casual dismissal of the law. Before they focused on the fact that Edward said it wouldn’t be the first time they broke a law.</p><p>“You’ve broken laws before?” Edward smiled devilishly before raising his fingers, listing off all the law-breaking actions he has done.</p><p>“Oh yeah, let’s see, we broke into a government facility that was “closed down” – “</p><p> “You staged a coup.”</p><p>“Um, I accidentally helped fake the death of a framed lieutenant- “</p><p>“You staged a coup.”</p><p>“We were on the run for a few months from the military.”</p><p>“You staged a coup.”</p><p>“I turned coal into gold to buy a mining town, almost forgot about that one- “</p><p> “You staged a coup.”</p><p>“They get it already Alphonse! Besides, you helped me do it!” Alphonse snickered as his brother finally got fed up with his interruptions and growled up in his face. The students were just standing there as they realized that they REALLY got some odd people to protect Harry and the rest of the school. They were just about to let them continue their tangent when Hermione remembered the fact about the dates and his ‘age’ not matching up.</p><p>“Wait, professor, in the article with the man called the Freezing Alchemist, the article is from six years ago, and it said that you were 12, doesn’t that mean you’re 19 and not 21?” The brothers started to internally freak out but did a great job of hiding it. Putting his chin in the pit of his index and forefinger, he faked confusion before calmly saying to Alphonse.</p><p><em>“Shit, what the fuck am I supposed to say? I forgot about the stupid newspaper articles they published of me.”</em> Even though they were frantically trying to cover up Edwards fuck up, they were both very calm about it, causing the students to believe that they were trying to remember what Hermione was talking about.</p><p>
  <em>“Just say that you started when you were 12 but they didn’t let you out on missions until you were 14- “</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ah, so just tell them that I wasn’t 12 but 14 in that picture?”</em>
</p><p><em>“Yup.”</em> Edward decided to follow the plan they pretty much pulled out of their ass and hit the bottom of his fist against his open palm in false realization. He pulled the article he knew they were talking about out and showed it to them.</p><p>“Ah, this is the one you’re talking about, right?” The students leaned forward to look at it before nodding yes. Edward nodded himself and pointed at a bullshit line in the article.</p><p>“Oh, I see where you got confused. Yeah, it does say here that I became a state alchemist when I was 12, which I did, but it doesn’t say in the picture that I was 14 already. They didn’t let me go onto a mission until I was 14, they made me do two years of training and research first.” Edward was glad that he long mastered the art of bullshitting people and lying through his teeth as the students seemed to believe it completely. And they did, the reason seemed to be a perfectly reasonable explanation that was logical. The students nodded their heads in understanding and tried to think of more questions to no avail.</p><p>“Well, is there anything else you want to know?” The three of them looked at each other before shaking their heads no. they both internally sighed in relief before telling the kids to come back when they want and sent them off to their classes. They both sighed as soon as the office door was closed.</p><p>“That was close.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Our Teachers Are Weird</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hogsmeade? What’s that?” It was one of the few classes where the two Professors let the class have a free period so they could research more while keeping an eye on the students that were supposed to be trying to answer the riddle that was due next Friday. As a result, all of the students were trying to discuss it with each other to no avail. While they usually wouldn’t have allowed this, it proved that the students were so hopeless, they still couldn’t find an answer. During this free period, some of the students tried to get closer to their young Professor. Those some being Ron, Hermione, and Harry.</p><p>“It’s one of the few times students are allowed out of the castle to go and visit the nearby village. Although everyone has to get a permission slip signed by their parent or guardian to visit since everyone is underage and all.” The two brothers listened to Hermione as they soaked up the information. They exchanged glances, would Alphonse need a permission slip? Since he is still considered to be underage in their home country and is technically isn’t a teacher here.</p><p>“Would I need a permission slip?” The three students looked at Alphonse in surprise. The boys looked at him as if he was an idiot and Hermione looked as if she was considering his question.</p><p>“Why would you need a permission slip? You’re a teacher for god’s sake.” Edward threw a small glare at Ron as he didn’t appreciate his tone of his towards his little brother. Alphonse sighed before placing a hand on Edwards’s shoulder, a sign for him to just drop the matter.</p><p>“Technically, Alphonse is still underage back home and he isn’t officially a teacher here…eh what the hell, you can go Alphonse.”  Alphonse smiled brightly at this and was just about to start pestering Edward to go with him when Hermione tried to correct Edward.</p><p>“Um, Professor, if your brother does need a permission slip, he needs his guardian to sign it.” Edward groaned in exasperation before admitting defeat. Pulling out a sheet of paper, he quickly signed his signature along with the written permission that he was allowed to go to Hogsmeade if he wanted to. He gave it to Alphonse who folded it up and placed it in his breast pocket.</p><p>“There, just show that if they give you any shit about it.”</p><p>“Mate, you can’t just sign it for him.” Hermione bristled at the rough language that was directed towards his teacher by the red-headed idiot. But Edward didn’t seem to give a single fuck, much to the relief of the brunette. Edward was already reading his book again before he grunted out.</p><p>“Watch me.” The three students were there confused as of why exactly their teacher thought that he could just sign his brother’s permission slip expecting it to be enough. Alphonse sighed at his brother’s actions before taking it upon himself to explain their situation.</p><p>“What he means, is that brother is my guardian. When he joined the military, he became an adult so he was given the parental rights for me.” The three of them fell silent as they realized what that meant for the Elric’s. Other than the special situation with the two of them, older siblings rarely hold the parents’ rights when their parents are still in the world of the living. </p><p>Wait, why do you have the par-agh.” Harry and Hermione jabbed their elbows into Ron’s sides to stop him from completing that completely idiotic sentence. Edward noticed what happened and gave them a blank stare before turning to Alphonse.</p><p><em>“I will eat my leather shoe if he manages to solve the riddle.”</em> Alphonse laughed at this before replying with a smile on his face.</p><p><em>“I’m sure teacher said the same thing about us brother.</em>” Edward scoffed loudly, causing the three students to glower at them as they were obviously talking about the three of them in their native language. Something that Hermione noticed with distaste as it was extremely rude to do so right in front of them and not even have the courtesy to do it in English.</p><p><em>“She probably did, but I was 10, he’s 15 and still lacks some common sense.”</em> Alphonse shook his head in defeat as he realized that this was another battle that he wasn’t going to win. Partly because his brother is right about the younger red-head. Turning to the students he smiled.</p><p>“Sure, it sounds interesting and- “Alphonse threw his arm around Edwards’s shoulders and pulled him closer to himself. Edward groaned as he realized what his brother was planning to do and tried to get out of his grip.</p><p>“We would love to come and see the village.” Edward finally managed to get out of his grip and pushed him away, much to his amusement.</p><p>“Yeah, you can go by yourself. Knowing our luck, one of us is going to get kidnapped even if I go with you.” Alphonse groaned loudly at the mention of kidnapping before throwing his hands up in the air in an overdramatic act.</p><p>“That was one-time brother! Please let it go! It’s been a couple of years already!”</p><p>“Al, you were <em>a fucking 7-foot-tall suit of armor</em> and you still managed to get kidnapped! How could I let it go?”</p><p>“Wait you were kidnapped?” Harry asked in surprise as he heard that his Professor was kidnapped at some point in time. The two Professors had honestly forgotten the students were standing right there and they were ready to go into a tangent about each other’s antics over the years. Alphonse chuckled nervously at this before explaining.</p><p>“Yeah, they caught me off guard- “</p><p>“Didn’t you go with them willingly and was overpowered in the end?”</p><p>“But it was a small town- “</p><p>“Dublith is not a small town.”</p><p>“We lived in when we were younger so brother was able to find out and come and save me with Teacher.”</p><p>“And with King Bradley’s help once he realized that you were kidnapped.” Alphonse had gotten sick of Edward's interruptions and turned to look at him, his fist in the air as a threat. His vein was throbbing as he gritted out.</p><p>“Shut. Up. Edward.” Edward put his hands up in surrender but the wide smile that was on his face told a different story. The three students stared at them in amazement as the two brothers were oddly relaxed as they retold the story of Alphonse’s kidnapping. The brothers were still off in their own world when Harry started to question them.</p><p>“Wait, so you’re telling us that you- “He pointed at Alphonse, who turned to look at him and stopped threatening Edward.</p><p>“Were kidnapped when you were 15 and you- “He pointed at Edward who looked very annoyed that he was still part of this conversation and just wanted to get back to research. He flipped open his pocket watch while Harry was still talking and noticed that there were only ten minutes left in class.</p><p>“Saved him with the help of your teacher and the military? I doubt that happened.” Alphonse shook his head at Harry’s dismissal of the story and decided to correct them.</p><p>“Well, for one, I was 13, and it really did happen, I didn’t get hurt from the entire experience but brother did so he has a scar from it.</p><p>“I do?”</p><p>“Yeah, you do. Remember, you had a cut on your left cheek and a gash above your right eye. You had a harder time fighting against Greed because blood was dripping into your eye.” They watched him as he took off his glove to feel his face for the scar he was talking about. (The rest of the students saw his bare hand and started to grumble while handing the victors their money. They were sure he had something to hide under them) Sure enough, there was a long and thin scar. He blinked in surprise when he felt it and remembered how he reacted when he got the scar.</p><p>“Oh yeah. I remember now, I blew a gasket when I realized that he left a scar on my face because I wouldn’t be able to hide it like I do with the other ones.” As they kept on talking, the students started to realize more and more that their Professors were very odd. They were going to keep on asking questions, but before they could, Edward dismissed the class a couple of minutes early before walking out of the classroom. Alphonse looked at him as he left and turned to look at the kids.</p><p>“We’ll go, it’s, today right?” They nodded their heads in response and again, they were cut off as Alphonse said goodbye and walked out of the classroom, leaving them there standing at the desk.</p><p>“Well, that was…interesting?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Hogsmead</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you sure it’s a good idea to ask professor Elric and his brother?” Hermione and Ron were still very apprehensive to ask Edward and Alphonse for help, worried that he wouldn’t help them or that he would tell another teacher. Harry nodded his head yes. </p><p>“Yeah, it’s perfect, we need someone to train us how to fight, and who else would we go to? He’s in the military and they say he is one of the best fighters, the choice is obvious.” Hermione bit her lip nervously while taking a glance at Edward. It was another class where they had gotten a free period to work on the riddle. Edward and Alphonse were grading or researching something with a bored look on their face. </p><p>“Maybe we should invite them to Hogsmeade, get on their good side before we try to ask them anything?” The two boys thought over her suggestion. It would be much easier to ask someone familiar for a favor instead of asking a practical stranger, then again, it was his job to help him. Harry nodded in approval.</p><p> “Ok, let’s go ask them now.” </p>
<hr/><p>Harry drew his cloak around him closer as they got off the carriages, it was freezing at the moment, and everyone was rushing to get to their destinations in hopes of walking into a warm building. He led Ron and Hermione to the Hogs Head, where they’ll be having their first meeting of the students who actually want to learn something. They quickly settled into the empty bar by ordering a round of butterbeer before sitting down in a corner. Harry nervously bounced his leg as he waited for the other students who were interested to walk in. it didn’t take long for students of various ages and houses to settle in with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a mug of butterbeer in their own hands. The students kept on glancing at one another while also taking glances at the door. They were all collectively nervous of the chance of a teacher or another staff member walking into the pub and asking what was going on. With a firm but nervous nod from Hermione, Harry begun the meeting and hopefully the beginning of protection. </p>
<hr/><p>Edward nearly moaned the rush of warmth that enveloped him when he walked into the nearly deserted pub. He took off his hood and rubbed his hands together as he tried to make himself warmer. He knew it was going to be cold but he didn’t know it was going to be this cold, his stumps started to ache with the cold and he stubbornly decided that he wasn’t going to go back outside until it was time to go. Alphonse chuckled at the relieved look that was on his brother's face before putting down his hood as well, relaxing in the warmth the pub brought. </p><p>“<em>Fuck this, I’m not coming here again until it gets warm enough to make me sweat buckets.” </em>Alphonse laughed at this as he knew that Edward was going to stay true to his word. Their attention was caught when they heard the loud chattering suddenly fall quiet. They looked to the corner where Harry and his crowd was. They immediately knew something was up as the students are terrible at acting natural. Edward sighed at the sight of them. He was part of enough secret meetings and busted enough of them to know that they weren’t supposed to see the students like this. They looked at each other before making their way over to the students. They noticed that with each step they got closer to them, the more the students shrunk in and looked at them with nervous eyes. Noticing that all of them were looking to the wonder boy for guidance, Edward knew that he was the leader or at least the main organizer of this little meeting.</p><p> “So, what’s going on here?” </p><p>“Nothing professor! We are just having some small talk.” Hermione started off in a hurry before catching herself and finishing with a more natural tone. Alphonse gave her props for catching her screw up but it was already too late. Edward quirked up an eyebrow before continuing. </p><p>“Listen, you guys absolutely suck at acting normal, so what’s going on?” Harry clenched his jaw as he realized that there was most likely getting out of this, but he had to try anyway, so in his best casual tone, he answered him. </p><p>“Nothing professor, we are just, just discussing the answer to your riddle. Since it's due on Friday and all.” Edward made an ‘oh’ sound while nodding his head. He was still looking at them and many of the students relaxed as they thought that they had successfully fooled their teacher. Unfortunately for them, it would take a little bit more than kissing up to his ass to trick him. Edward smiled and crossed his arms before leaning forward at them.  </p><p>“Nice try, it’s going to take more than kissing up to my ass to trick me. Now, what are you guys planning? A prank? Or how about a way to cheat during class? Or it could be a secret meeting…” Edward smiled as he saw the well-hidden twitch of Harry as he said the last part. Alphonse didn’t miss it as well and nodded in understanding. The two of them had heard about the antics of Harry during his class with Umbridge. He wasn’t the only one that was protesting the way that she was teaching. Many of their students would vent to each other in whispers during class about how idiotic her teaching style was and they couldn’t help but agree. </p><p>“I would have to assume this a meeting to go against professor Umbridge and her teachings?” The students collectively stiffened up as they were caught before slowing relaxing, realizing that there was nothing they could do, and were getting ready to get scolded. What they weren’t expecting were the two brothers sharing a wide smile before pulling out a chair and sitting down with them. Edward straddled the chair and leaned his face against his fist before gesturing towards Harry with a nod.</p><p> “So, what’s the plan?” Harry blinked in surprise, in fact, all of the students did. They were sure as hell wasn’t expecting their professor to help them in an attempt to defy their teacher and representative of the ministry of magic. </p><p>“What?” </p><p>“You heard me, what’s the plan? Blackmail, extortion, setting a trap, what are you going to do against her?” </p><p>“Yeah, those are usually the best ways to get someone in trouble. Although my personal favorite is just breaking in and getting the evidence we need. That’s how we used to do it.” All of the students reeled back in surprise as their teacher started to casually list off illegal methods of getting what they want. They were even more surprised when Alphonse agreed with Edward, they weren’t expecting him to agree to the illegal stuff. </p><p>“You’re not going to report us to Umbridge? She can get the both of you in a lot of trouble.” Edward let out a harsh laugh in Hermione’s face before Alphonse took over for him. </p><p>“Umbridge can’t do anything to us, not unless she wants to start an international incident and a war. Amestris isn’t exactly known for peaceful negotiations and they won’t be happy if either one of us is detained by your government.” They all nodded their head as they realized that the brothers were right. Hermione bit her lip as she tried to put together all of her thoughts to efficiently inform her Professors. </p><p>“Well, so far, we were planning to have secret meetings to learn how to fight and how to cast the spells we are supposed to learn in defense against the dark arts. Since she's making a point of not teaching us how to defend ourselves.” The brothers nodded their heads in understanding before turning to look at each other. </p><p>“You think they can handle our training regimen?’ Alphonse turned to look at the students and didn’t miss their slightly chubby faces and out of shape physics. There was no way in hell they would be able to keep up without some type of training beforehand. </p><p>“No, we might have to change some of the exercises and decrease the amount.” The students sat there in confusion as the Professors discussed training regimens to get them ‘whipped’ into shape. Some of the students were starting to get worried, surely the Professors weren’t talking about the training regimens that the muggles do, right? </p><p>“Alright, we’ll help. But we can’t help out with your magic, but we can whip you into shape.”</p><p>“What do you mean whip us into shape?” Some of the kids were scared to hear the answer to Ron’s question. And based on the devilish smile the two brothers gave them, they had a good reason to be scared. Edward smiled widely and then cracked the knuckles on his hand before leaning his head to the right to give him a crazy look.</p><p> “You really don’t think we got so good at our job by lazing, around do you?” </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. D.A</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward and Alphonse stared up at the newest educational decree before looking for the trio. The chances of it being a coincidence of Umbridge disbanding all of the student's clubs the day after they had met up to make a secret club was very low. They finally found the students as they walked up to the newest plaque and pulled them to the side. </p><p>“Hey, do you know who tattled to pinky?” The two males tried to think of some people who would rat them out before Hermione leaned forward with a smug look on her face. </p><p>“I jinxed the paper we signed last night, anyone who has reported us will show the signs, I think this was just a coincidence.” Edward and Alphonse looked at her in surprise before nodding their heads in approval, who made the girl beam at the sight. </p><p>“Smart girl, also, the three of you have detention.” They all exclaimed in surprise, drawing looks from anyone who heard them. The three of them were confused and angry by the fact that they had just spoken to the man for less than 30 seconds and they got detention. </p><p>“What for professor?!” The two blondes nearly face palmed as the three of them clearly missed the message before putting a frown on their faces and repeating themselves. </p><p>“Because I want to, now don’t forget detention is going to be at the end of today, make sure you let your friends know that you’ll be too busy for whatever you were planning.” Hermione made a silent ‘oh’ as she realized what their professor was inferring. That they wanted everyone who was involved in the meeting on Friday at the Hogs Head. Hermione quickly covered the male’s mouth before nodding her head in understanding. </p><p>“Yes professor, we understand, we’ll be there right after dinner.” The alchemy professors nodded in agreement as she dragged off the boys. The boys were mad but calmed down once she told them what he really wanted. </p><p>
  <em>“Those boys really could learn a thing or two from her.”</em>
</p><p><em>“I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt if they did. Do you think they found a place already?” </em>Edward watched the retreating figures of the students as they disappeared. He walked into the great hall as well and didn’t answer until they were sitting at the staff table, serving themselves some food.</p><p>
  <em>“I’m not sure, I hope they did.”</em>
</p><p><em>“Anyways, did I tell you wh</em>at Mustang did for Elicia and Gr-why am I speaking English?” While Edward was fluent in English, he just preferred to talk to his brother in Amestrian for privacy and also because he just wanted to, so when he just suddenly switched to English without a conscious effort, he was confused. The two brothers as well as the rest of the teachers looked over at the bitch when they heard her sigh in relief. She had the fake sweet smile on her face and had her wand out. The tip was pointed towards the brothers, showing that she had cast some sort of spell. </p><p>“That’s better, now we can all understand you. It is rude to speak in another language around others.” The two brothers rose an eyebrow at her audacity. They had all realized that Umbridge had done and the teachers were already starting to conjure some earplugs, Edward had been there long enough for them to predict his reaction. Edward already felt his anger spiking while Alphonse smiled a diplomatic smile at her before saying. </p><p>“Might we remind you that we have the right to speak in our native tongues and what you just did was severely invasive?” Edward however, was not so diplomatic and it was another situation where all of the teachers were able to see the differences between the brothers. </p><p>“Try that again you bitch and we will report what you just did to our Führer. <em>Anyways al, before Ms. Toad over there interrupted us, Mustang sent Hawkeye and the rest of his team to Elicia’s career day because her mom was too busy to go.” </em></p><p><em>“That’s sweet.” </em>The teachers who were listening were stunned as Edward turned back to Alphonse and started to talk to each other in another, the harsher language that they could only relate to a mix of Chinese and something else. Umbridge fumed as she realized that the brothers weren’t bilingual like she thought and quickly cast another translation spell, ignoring the fact that Edward just told her that he would tell Mustang if she did it again. </p><p>“<em>Yeah, see. I told you he was nothing but a big softy. Do you happen to know if Havoc has re</em>turned to the military aga- oh for fucks sakes! Again?! Do you want to get your ass kicked?! Believe me you fucking bitch I will gladly kick your fucking toad ass if you translate what we are saying one more fucking time!” Edward was standing up and sticking his finger into her face by the time he finished that. He stared at her for a couple of seconds before clicking his tongue and turned to leave. </p><p>“Oh, you’re not worth it, my superior will be hearing about this you fucking idiot, <em>Al, let’s go before I hit someone.” </em></p><p><em>“Coming brother, you really should calm down before class starts…” </em>Alphonse’s voice trailed off as they walked out of the great hall, speaking yet another language that they were fluent in. little did they know, the two brothers have learned Xertian, Xingese, Latin, Drachmen, Cretan, Aerugoan, and English in order to learn from Hohenheim books and to join the military. Now, to tell Mustang what she was trying to do.</p><hr/><p>“Over here, professor.” </p><p>“Ed, just call me Ed, I’m sick of this professor shit.” Edward walked with his hands in his pockets while slouching, Alphonse was right next to him, watching attentively as the trio led the two of them down the halls. Getting closer and closer to the Hall of Requirement where many of the other students were waiting for them. The three of them had spread the word that they had ‘detention’ and also where the meeting place was so now it was just time for them to get there. Edward rose an eyebrow when they had to walk in front of the same place three times before a door appeared (he was sick of this magic bullshit). He rolled his eyes before walking forward and opening the door. He was met with about 25 pairs of eyes turning to look at him with a fearful glance before relaxing as they saw him. Edward stepped in and let the others close the door behind him. He looked at the students before yelling out to them.</p><p>“Listen up! Since all of you are students, you can get in a hell of a lot more trouble than me and Alphonse, this is your last chance to leave.” Some of the students looked nervous as they were reminded that they could get into some major trouble but they decided to stay. Edward hummed in approval before looking over at Harry, motioning for him to take the stage. Harry bit in lip in nervousness before breaking into his speech. The speech that he was hoping that would inspire his fellow students to help him fight against Umbridge and the ministry of magic. He hoped that everyone would listen, and once everyone listened and agreed with him, a relief filled his entire body. Edward and Alphonse stood off to the side, impressed by the speech Harry had delivered, Edward put his hand on Harry's shoulder, catching his attention</p><p>“How are you going to let everyone know about the next meeting?” Harry bit his lip in concentration, they hadn’t thought of that, they were just happy that they were able to find the Room of Requirement in the first place. </p><p>“Well, how did you guys used to do it? You mention that the two of you used to be in a secret organization?” The two brothers looked at each other. Edward sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he tried to remember some of the techniques he’s learned over the years as they didn’t have meetings after they were separated.</p><p>“Well, that was a different situation, the two of us as well as the others were separated all over the country for months, but in your case, I’ve seen some organizations plan their next meeting through a lot of ways actually. We’ve seen a group announce the next meeting by hanging out colorful blankets outside or by delivering stuff with a message inside, it depends on you. You students can get in a lot more trouble if you get caught than we could.” The students listened eagerly to their professor’s wise words and realized that they were going to have to try to find a way to announce the next meeting without getting caught. Edward noticed the small smile of Hermione and looked at her attentively as she pulled a small golden coin out of the bag she was carrying. </p><p>“Actually, I managed to cast a spell on these coins that will announce the next meeting. Every coin will heat up and vibrate when the next meeting is arranged. On the small numbers along the rim will show the date and time.” Edward took the coin from her hand and looked at it with a smile. Although magic did not make any sense at all most of the time, he did have to admit it did have its benefits. </p><p>“Great job Hermione, now, everyone go back to your dorms, it’s still not time for curfew, but if anyone asks, you were either getting extra alchemy lessons, or you were curious about alchemy and tagged along. Just tell them to get us and we’ll cover for you.” The students were just about to leave when Hermione realized they were yet to pick a leader. The two brothers watched as Hermione put the choice to a vote so it could be official. Edward had to give her credit, she knew what she was doing. He had seen a lot of groups fail because they didn’t officially pick a leader. After Harry was declared the leader the students nodded their heads before strategically leaving the room by groups of two or three. Edward nodded in approval as the students weren’t that dense and at least knew how to sneak around. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were just about to leave themselves when they were called back by Edward and Alphonse. </p><p>“Yes, pro- Ed?” Edward didn’t respond to the slip-up and continued with his business. </p><p>“Listen, Umbridge has been trying the pressure the two of us more and more, she even used a translation spell on us so we could stop speaking to each other in Amestrian. It won’t take long for her to do the same for the three of you, whatever she does or say that’s questionable, tell either one of us. We are already composing a file to send to my C.O so we can get her in trouble in the legal route.” The students fell silent as they absorbed what their professors are trying to do. They nodded their head in understanding before Harry started to ask some questions of their own. </p><p>“Ed, what are you going to do to help us?” Edward looked up from his pocket watch and thought about the question for a little bit before answering his question. </p><p>“Well, for one, we are going to teach you guys how to fight, also build up your stamina, how do you wizards usually fight anyways?” The three of them were surprised that they were going to be taught how to fight.</p><p>“Oh, duels between wizards start with the opponents bowing to each other before starting to throw spells at each other.” Edward and Alphonse listened to Ron as he explained the way wizards fight and they realized that they were going to have to break cultural and social norms when it comes to fighting. </p><p>“I see, well, in that case, we are going to have to make the lot of you to run your hearts out. I doubt in a fight of life and death, you’re going to be standing in one spot. So, get ready to make cardio your best friend.” While the three of them were somewhat upset that they had to do physical exercise, something they haven’t done for years now, on a regular basis but had to admit that they were right. The three of them had noticed multiple times that it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to run a little bit more. </p><p>“Um Professor, I mean Ed, will you be teaching us how to use alchemy to defend ourselves?” The two of them immediately shook their heads at Hermione’s question. It took them years before they were able to use alchemy in a fight, and even then, that was because Teacher used to throw knives at them to improve their reflexes and so they could draw circles as fast as they could.</p><p>“No, it took the two of us years before we were able to use alchemy in a fight, we don’t have time for that, we’ll teach you basic self-defense instead. “Harry nodded his head in understanding. It would be very useful to know self-defense as he has learned in the past. Not to mention it would be nice to be able to set Dudley in his place without using magic </p><p>“Now, we’ll see you guys in class later, now go back to your dorms before Umbridge starts walking around like a creep.” </p><p>“Ok, goodnight you two.” </p><p>“Night.” </p><p>“Have a good night.” The blondes waved goodbye to students. Edward sighed before turning to his brother. </p><p>“<em>I know I’ve asked this more than once, but why can’t we ever get simple missions?” </em></p><p>
  <em>“Probably because truth hates the two of us, well he hates you, not me.” </em>
</p><p><em>“Ok, that’s fair.”</em> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Its Time to Answer the Riddle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry tapped his leg nervously against the floor as he berated himself for not even thinking about the riddle at all. He had completely forgotten about it with everything that was going on with Umbridge and the secret club they put together. There were very few students that had thought about it and Harry was sure that they would be the ones to get the answer right. Harry sighed in defeat as he realized that if he didn’t get the answer, he wouldn’t be able to continue taking one of the classes he wanted to take. Harry wasn’t the only one who was sighing in disappointment. Hermione and Ron had also not gotten the answer and now they were only waiting for their upcoming failure. </p><p>“Alright, it’s been a month already, one by one, Alphonse will call you out to the hallway where you will tell us your answer. We won’t tell you who got it right until after everyone gets their chance to answer it. You’ll get only one chance, you had the past month to try and answer it so it's your fault if you get it wrong. Edward and Alphonse were standing next to each other with a clipboard in hand. Edward stared at his students, at their nervous faces and he could tell that a lot of the students didn’t have a single idea on the riddle. There were only a few students who looked a little bit more confident than the others, but overall, all of them looked clueless. Edward had a stern look and called out the first name he saw on his list. </p><p>“Alice, come and give us your answer.” </p><hr/><p>“I-I don’t even know how you even got that answer.” </p><hr/><p>“Did you just say all for one and one for all?” </p><hr/><p>“Yeah…just because you say Jesus is always the answer doesn’t mean you’re right.”</p><hr/><p>“Oh, thank god! At least one of you was able to answer it.” Edward smiled widely before roughly patting Neville’s shoulder. Neville blinked in surprise as he realized that he was the first one to solve the riddle and looked happy and relieved. Everyone who had listened to his idea thought he was wrong. They all found it weird that Neville thought the answer to the riddle was the riddle. What was the point of answering the riddle with the riddle? Neville had honestly doubted himself the entire time but he decided to stick to his guns and say his answer. </p><p>“Really? I got it?” Neville slumped with relief as he got the riddle right. He has listened to their advice and spent time outside instead of trying to find the answer in a book like so many students did. It wasn’t until he was germinating some new plants in Herbology when he realized it was the circle of life. That at one point in time, every single thing was part of the universe and remained that way until the soil took it back again. Or at least that was the way he understood it. But it seemed to be enough for the brothers. Alphonse sighed happily before pushing Neville back into the classroom. </p><p>“Don’t tell anyone the answer, or that you got it right, send in Harry now.” Neville nodded his head and called Harry out before walking back into the classroom. He noticed with slight sadness that none of the students had flocked to him, asking if he had gotten it right like they did with the other students. Neville could only assume this was due to his reputation to struggle with certain subjects and they must have assumed that he struggled with alchemy just as much as they did. But, he didn’t, everything made sense to him, yeah, he did have to study a little bit to be able to understand what was going on, but he genuinely enjoyed learning alchemy, just as much as he loved Herbology. Neville sat there, waiting for the rest of the class to answer, and was excited for the next class as, by that time, the brothers will let everyone know if they passed or not. </p><hr/><p>“Elaborate on your answer.” Harry squirmed nervously on the spot as he was under the golden gazes of the brothers. He wasn’t sure if he was right, but it just seemed like the answer was in the riddle itself. </p><p>“Well, you are your entire universe?” Edward and Alphonse turned to look at each other before conversing in Amestrian. </p><p>“<em>I mean, he did get the right idea.” </em>Harry was standing there, waiting for them to stop speaking in their language and in English to tell him if he passed or not.</p><p><em>“Yeah, he does, write him onto the list, god I was hoping we would have less students to teach.” </em>Harry watched as Edward had an annoyed look on his face before writing down his name, he noticed that Edward was the only one who wrote down his name and Alphonse didn’t. </p><p>“Alright, you can go back in, call in the next person.” </p><p>“Wait, you’re not going to tell me if I passed.” Edward had a bored look on his face. All he wanted was to just hurry up and get the answer from his idiot students and despite the fact that they were all told that he wouldn’t tell them if they got it right or not. That was the only damn thing that they asked. Neville was the only one who didn’t bother asking and even then, Edward told him anyway since he has a soft spot of the slightly younger boy </p><p>“Nope, now get back in there.” He popped the P at the end and pushed Harry back into the classroom, Alphonse sighed at his brother's actions. </p><p>
  <em>“Can’t you be a little bit gentler brother?” </em>
</p><p><em>“Can’t you be a little bit meaner?</em>” Alphonse just sighed at this. Edward cracked a smile before ruffling his brother’s hair, still happy that he was able to do it again. Alphonse pushed Edward's hand off of his head, finally understanding why he would get so sour whenever someone would do it to him. Now that he was back into his body, he realized a long time ago that it wasn’t all that. Alphonse glared at him before fixing his hair and then took to messing up his brother’s hair. Edward shoved him away and fixed his hair while looking at his list. </p><p>“<em>He was the last one, right? Let’s go in and tell them who passed or failed. I can’t believe only 10 students passed out of 30 students, not even half of them passed.” </em>Edward looked over Alphonse’s shoulder and read the list of the students who failed before comparing it with his own.</p><p><em>“So, only, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Chang, Pavarti, Finnegan, and some others, all of them are part of the defense club so it will certainly make our lives easier with communication and crud.” </em>Alphonse sighed at the mention of the passing students. Although he knew that some of them weren’t able to solve the riddle, he certainly wasn’t expecting only a third of the students to pass. Now he’s only worried about the 7th year class and the passing rate in there. Edward sympathetically patted Alphonse’s shoulder and smiled at him. Alphonse returned it and straightened himself out.</p><p>
  <em>“Ok, let’s go in.” </em>
</p><p><em>“Let’s, put on your best-disappointed face.” </em>Edward pulled open the door and walked into the classroom, the chattering that filled the air immediately quieted down as they looked at the brothers with an anxious stare. Edward noticed this as he stood at the front of the class and sighed heavily before looking at his list and putting it down. He leaned on his heels while his hands were in his pockets. He knew that if you didn’t want to be disappointed, you’re not supposed to have any expectations, but by god was he disappointed.  </p><p>“Well, I don’t know how you guys did it, but only 10 of you guys managed to pass, the rest of you failed.” Neville did a great job at hiding his joy and instead looked down at the desk like he was disappointed. The other students were waiting and hoping that the brothers would tell them. Hermione herself was biting at her nail as she waited for the news. Edward noticed the looks on their faces and quickly shut them down. </p><p>“We won’t say who passed and who did until the next class so until then, class is dismissed.” Some of the students cried out in protest before being ushered out of the class by students who really couldn’t give a single shit. Hermione was one of those students, one of the students that were ready to drop on their knees and beg Edward and Alphonse for the answer. </p><p>“No! I have to know!” Harry and Ron said quiet reassurances to her as they walked her out, Fred and George stared at them while they were walking. </p><p>“What happened to her?” </p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Snow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“It’s too cold, let’s go to the room of requirement instead?” Alphonse shivered in the room, if it was cold here in their bedroom, it was undoubtedly colder outside. Alphonse pulled open the blackout curtains from the window and gasped. Edward's head shot up as he looked at his brother. Alphonse was standing there with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide as if he was seeing something either terrifying or amazing. </p><p>“What?” Alphonse just stared outside and didn’t answer him, it wasn’t until Edward rushed over to the window and pulled back the curtain just to see…snow, and it was just a thick layer of snow covering everything in sight. Edward groaned at the sight of it, the cold wasn’t nice to his automail and he didn’t want to deal with it. His time at Fort Briggs was enough and he was just fine staying inside thank you very much. While Edward looked annoyed, his little brother was once again, the exact opposite. </p><p>“Come on! Let’s go outside!” Alphonse started to hurriedly put on his clothes and started to layer up, taking time to create a thicker coat using his old one and some spare fabric. Edward stared at him with his mouth open and was just about to deny his brother the chance to go outside to play in the snow. Until he remembered that Alphonse hasn’t had the chance to feel snow since he was about six since it had snowed a measly half an inch back home. That was the day their mom had let them go outside with layers of clothing. Through enough effort and time, they were able to make a decent-sized snowman. That was the last time he was able to feel the sharp cold of snow. Edward sighed and gave a small smile at the sight of his brother’s excited face before he started to get ready himself. Making sure to put a layer of fleece on all of his clothes as well as making his jacket fleeced laced and thick like he did when they visited fort Briggs. Alphonse was dragging Edward out of the room before he had even put finished putting on his jacket and gloves. </p><p>“Al, hang on!” </p><p>“Hurry it up you slowpoke!” Alphonse was comically pulling on Edward's arm, trying to drag him down the halls. Edward was laughing at his brother’s eagerness, fondness laced his laughter that echoed through the empty school. While laughter in an empty school usually disturbs anyone, his laughter was so happy and full of joy, it would have made them curious instead. Alphonse was pulling at his brother’s arm, dragging him along like he did when they were still children and Alphonse wanted his brother to look at something. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the entrance, panting as they looked at the fluffy and white snow. Their mouths dropped open at the sight of all of the snow, sure they had seen some while up in the north, but they didn’t exactly have the time nor the mindset to play in the snow and well, this was their chance. Alphonse ran into the snow and due to some miscalculations, he ended up tripping and landing face-first into the soft snow. Edward started laughing when Alphonse shot up immediately after, yelling that it was cold. Alphonse gave a halfhearted glare before grabbing Edward's arm, and pulled him towards him, making sure that he uses his legs to flip Edward over so he wouldn’t land on him. Edward let out an ‘oof’ as he fell into the snow on his back. Edward blinked in surprise as he realized that he was now laying in the snow while his brother was laughing, making snow angels in the snow while Edward recovered from the shock. Edward sat up before turning around and glaring at Alphonse. Noticing his look, Alphonse started laughing and that was the beginning of their snowball fight.  </p>
<hr/><p> Harry and, the other Gryffindors were sleeping peacefully, all curled up in their nice and warm blankets. The same blankets that kept them in the world of dreams with comfort and relaxation, until they heard the faint sound of laughter and the clapping fill the room. The students who were closest to the windows of the room were the first to wake up to the noise. And it was their moaning and groaning along with the shuffling of their blankets that woke up the rest of the room. Ron and Harry had a particularly late night of homework and Ron was a little bit less than happy to get woken up so early. </p><p>“‘Ell that bloody git to shut up,” Ron muttered quietly as he thought it was one of the occupants who was making the noise. Harry sat up tiredly and rubbed his eyes. Upon hearing the laughter again along with clapping following after it, he put on his glasses and got out of bed. He was standing there in the middle of the room, trying to find out like everyone else who was making all of the noise. His eyes were drawn curtains as he realized that the noise was coming from outside. He crossed the gap and looked outside to see everything covered with snow, along with two blondes in red and black respectively running across the yard, throwing what looks like snowballs at each other as they ducked and hid behind snow walls</p><p>“It's Ed and Alphonse, they’re playing in the snow?” Ron sat up in bed and looked at him with a tired unbelieving face. From what Ron could tell, the brothers seemed like to be the type where they were all work and no play, or at least something along those lines. So to hear that his stoic teacher along with his devil-like little brother, were playing in the snow like children. He had a little bit of a hard time believing it.</p><p>“Our alchemy teachers, the ones from the military, are playing in the snow?” Harry nodded his head and looked back outside where he looked at them with confusion. You would think that a 21-year-old and his younger brother wouldn’t be playing in the snow like a six-year-old would. He kept on watching them, their laughter filled the air and made him realize that he might as well get up anyway as it's almost time. He was just about to turn around when he heard the sound of clapping again and he turned around just in time to see Edward fall into a pit that suddenly formed. His mouth dropped open and he let out a small gasp, drawing the attention of anyone else who was still awake. Curious, they all walked over to the window, only to see Edward come out of the pit on a rising mound of dirt and jumping off of it. This time Edward clapped his hands together before touching the ground and a mound of earth dumped a mound of snow onto Alphonse. Harry's jaw dropped at the sight. Was this what they were talking about in alchemy? About how they specialized in the earth and metals? Harry's brain was going a mile a minute as he realized that despite their preaching of the transmutation circle, he didn’t see Edward draw any circles, he only clapped his hands and boom, the earth moved. How? </p>
<hr/><p>Alphonse let out a small yelp at the sudden burial of his body under the snow before quickly getting out of it. Edward who was trying to sneak up on the pile before Alphonses got out, yelled in surprise as he saw his brother emerge from the pile. Edward was immediately thankful for the layers upon layer of clothes as Alphonse pulled him into the pile of snow with him and started to stuff snow down the back of his clothes.</p><p>“Al!” Alphonse laughed heartily as he watched his brother jump around, trying to get the snow out of his clothes. Edward was frantically trying to get the snow out before it either melted or before the snow managed to go down the back of his pants as well. While Edward was doing that, he noticed with small annoyance that his automail was starting to get affected by the snow. While it certainly took much longer than it did when compared to Fort Briggs, probably due to the amount of running around he’s been doing combined with Winry’s magic and the layers of his clothes, the metal fingers were already starting to lock up. </p><p>“Fucking shit that’s cold!” He finally managed to get out all of the snow before lugging Alphonses up onto his feet. Alphonse noticed that Edward's hand was stuck in a curled position and realized that it was already time for them to go in before Edward fucked up his automail. Besides, it was time for breakfast to start anyway. For the rest of the day, the only thing the students could talk about were the rumors of the infamous alchemy professors, playing around in the snow before school started like a bunch of primary school children.</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Final Warning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The students were buzzing with a mix of excitement and dread as this would be the day everyone who passed would continue while everyone else would drop the class. The brothers stood at their desk, discussing if they should continue with their plan to give everyone who was leaving and starting a final warning. They were both nervous about the reaction but were determined to make sure that their students are fully aware of the consequences of alchemy if not done correctly. Quieting down the class, the students were at attention.  </p><p>"Alright, this is the last day where we all are together. Next class, only the ones who answered the riddle will remain." Hermione turned and smiled brightly at Ron and Harry, ecstatic that the three of them were able to correctly answer him and remain in the alchemy class. By this time, many of the students already knew who was going to stay and who was going to leave. The brothers had announced it at last night’s dinner that the list was already up in front of the classroom. Many of the students were happy to pass, even the ones who failed were happy as they knew that alchemy wasn’t for them and that they would probably flunk the class anyway. While the other half of the students were legitimately sad that they were unable to answer the riddle correctly. Edward stared at the different expressions, there was a mixture of sadness, happiness, and nervousness. Clearing his throat again, he gave the students one last warning. Alphonse stood behind him, nervous about how the students were going to take the news and was wondering if the students would still be willing to learn alchemy. He looked at the cramped students, every alchemy student was packed into this class to make sure that the brothers wouldn’t have to repeat themselves. Edward gave Alphonse a nervous look, who continued once he got a confirmation nod from his brother. </p><p>"But, I have a final warning for the students who are going to be leaving us along with the ones who are staying." The dejected students snapped to attention after they were mentioned. Confused why he would be giving them a warning when they'll be dropping the class. The accomplished students were also confused, why would they get a warning when they’ll be the ones staying. The students looked at each other nervously. From what their professors told them, they knew alchemy was a dangerous art, and just the fact that the brothers are giving them a final warning made them nervous. Although Edward already knew what he wanted to say, he still scrambled to say the right words for them. </p><p>"What we have taught you guys so far, has only been the basic rules of chemistry and other sciences. If any of you decided to continue studying alchemy, you need to be aware of the risks." Edward fell silent as he let that settle in. By this point, he was leaning against the desk with his hands, giving the room a serious atmosphere. Some of the students paled, all of this work, all of the work that was almost hell to learn, wasn’t even alchemy? The students became even more nervous for their future grades for this class. Noticing that Edward was still trying to get his thoughts together, Alphonse's spoke up, knowing the general idea Edward was aiming for </p><p>"Alchemy is not like magic, if you don’t give up the same amount you're gaining, you will die." Alphonse flawlessly lied to them, while death was a possibility, it wasn’t the only one. But you had to scare the children somehow. Giving Edward a glance, he took the cue and started to take off his gloves and jacket. Gasps went around the room as the light hit the metal, sending light reflections into the room. While the gun holster caught the attention of muggle-born and pureblood students alike, the center of attention was his automail. Edward grabbed his metal arm subconsciously as he continued.  </p><p>"This is what happens when you try to perform a transmutation without having everything you need, this is the result of trying to get around equivalent exchange. The same thing will happen to you if you try to do the same. But it doesn’t have to be your arm, it could be your sight, your leg, some of your internal organs. It doesn’t even have to be you, it can take the life of someone around you. If you mess up, you can kill either yourself or someone else. Alchemy is dangerous and not to be trifled with." The students openly gaped at his arm. Some of them were whispering to each other, wondering how he lost it. Again, the remaining students already felt the pit of their stomach sink a little bit deeper as they realized that the same thing could happen to them. They could lose a limb or their lives if they decide to be reckless. Alphonse noticed the horror in the student’s faces and realized that if he didn’t explain the partial truth to them, all types of rumors were going to pop up. </p><p>"Edward gave up his arm to save my life. There was a war when we were younger and our town was hit, “ Alphonse gave them a very sad smile, a smile that made their hearts ache at the sight of it, “We were just there at the wrong place at the wrong time when it happened. I was going to die if he didn’t do anything, he gave up his arm to heal me using alchemy. Despite him giving up his arm, he only managed to heal me just enough for me to drag the two of us to the closest hospital to get treated."  </p><p>"Wait...it wasn’t enough to heal you?" The meek voice of Ron permeated the silent classroom. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised that he asked that question. Alphonse gave him a small smile, he was technically telling the truth. Edward just enough up just enough to bond his soul to the armor, saving him just enough for Alphonse to drag Edward to granny's house. </p><p> "No, it wasn't, I didn’t completely recover until a couple of years ago. I was 10 when the accident happened." The two of them felt a little bit guilty to lie to the students so blatantly but knew that they had to scare them to make sure they wouldn't try anything without proper knowledge. Edward let the truth settle in for a little bit before continuing</p><p>"This is what happens when people try to play god. I was – we, were very lucky that it was only my arm that was taken. It could have taken my life in exchange for his. We are only human, and nothing we do can change that." He left that somber thought before putting on his jacket again, hiding his arm from the prying eyes of the 15-year-olds. The students that were excited to join alchemy suddenly understood the dangers of alchemy and were a little bit more hesitant to learning it. He looked down at his hands, looked at the mismatched skin and metal. </p><p>“That accident was the reason why I joined the military.” He looked back at the students and some of them were shocked to see a sad smile on his face. That was one of the emotions they hadn’t seen on him. Edward looked at the students with worry. Although they were only four years younger than him, and they didn’t fulfill his expectations, it didn’t mean he didn’t somewhat care for them. It didn’t mean he wanted to see a repeat of his mistake because he didn’t do his job. </p><p>“This happened because I thought I was smart enough to get around the laws. I was forced to grow up, we were forced to grow up within the span of a year. We were lucky. I was lucky that I even survived the loss of my arm. Even though most of you won’t be able to continue alchemy with us if you guys ever continue learning alchemy. You have to remember that there are many ways you could mess up. You can be targeted for just being an alchemist like I was. I hope you all will keep this in mind, I don’t want any of you guys to lose your childhood like we did. As much as you want to think you guys are adults, you aren’t adults. You don’t know a single thing about life. It will chew you out, spit you and then chew you again, but it’s not your time to experience that so, be careful if you decided to continue alchemy…Class is dismissed.” </p><p>The students didn’t even know how to react. </p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Day One of Alchemy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright, time to establish some rules.” All of the students who passed the test were in the classroom, everyone else having the class replaced with study hall while Edward combined the two classes that had students that passed. All of the students stared eagerly at the brothers, it was a mix of fifth, and seventh years, it was a little bit odd that there were no sixth years but they weren’t questioning it. The brothers were standing at the front of the class, Alphonse with a serious look on his face, Edward with his arms crossed. The entire class was silent, waiting for the teacher to start the class. Edward cleared his throat before starting. </p><p>“First off, you are not allowed to activate circles without our supervision.” Edward waited for the students to nod along with him before moving on, this time, putting up each finger in tandem with his words. </p><p>“Rule two, you are not allowed to try and teach other students alchemy, the only thing you’re going to do is kill each other.” Edward let it sink in before his brother took over. </p><p>“Lastly, you are to never, and I mean <em>never</em> attempt human transmutation. As soon as you see a book that mentions that topic, you are to turn it in immediately to the two of us. It is a forbidden subject in alchemy. Anyone who is caught researching it will be kicked out of this class immediately. Although, if it was my choice, I would expel you from the school.” All of the students looked at each other hesitantly, exchanging confused looks on the topic. Like always, Hermione was the first one to hesitantly raise her hand. Causing many of the students to sigh in relief that they didn’t have to be the ones who asked the question.  </p><p>“Professor, why is it forbidden?” her quiet voice was like a shout in the dead silent room. Edward chewed on the inside of his cheek before answering her truthfully. </p><p>“Human transmutation is when someone attempts to bring someone back to life using alchemy,” Edward and Alphonse frowned at the number of faces that looked genuinely interested in the topic, before quickly following up on his statement. “But. It has never been successful, anyone who attempts it dies in the process. Despite the fact that the alchemist gives up his life to make it work, the result is a soulless being that dies within seconds, if you’re lucky, minutes. No one has ever performed it successfully and no one ever will, there is not a price for human life.” The class fell silent, some of them paling at the consequences of the transmutation, others just looking terrified at the prospect of death. A reaction that the brothers were hoping for. All of them jumped and came out of their thinking when Alphonse clapped his hands together to get their attention. </p><p>“Alright before we being, any questions?”</p>
<hr/><p>“Okay for the last time,” Edward was standing with his hand on his hip, the other one pinching the skin between his eyebrows, shaking his head in frustration and disappointment. Behind him, Edward could hear his brother hitting his head against something (It was the nearby wall) as Alphonse resisted groaning in exasperation.” we are not going to show you how to turn lead into gold. You can research it yourself and then let us approve of the circle before using it. Just remember that it’s illegal.” Alphonse wasn’t even sure if it was illegal in this country but he didn’t correct his brother. Again, they saw a concerning amount of faces fall in disappointment. They had been answering their question for way too long already and needed to start the class. </p><p>“Now, everyone come up here and grab a pen, you are to use this pen in the making of transmutation circles.” The students obediently got up from their desks and went to the front of the room where Alphonse was passing out the pens. The brothers had made the pens before taking them to Flitwick so he could charm them to last almost forever. Many of the muggle-borns were looking at the pens with a grateful smile. Although it wasn’t a fancy pen, they had sorely missed writing utensils that didn’t need to get dipped into ink. While the students that were raised in a magic family had no idea what the hell they were. Alphonse noticed the mixed looks among the students and went over to his brother.</p><p> “<em>You better give me a raise for this.” </em>Edward snorted at his brother’s statement and kept his eyes on the students as he answered him. </p><p>“<em>I already give you an allowance that someone your age would kill for.” </em>Alphonse rolled his eyes before leaning closer to his brother. </p><p>“<em>I still want a raise in my allowance.” </em>Edward shook his head with a smile on his face, turning his head just enough to eye his brother. </p><p>“<em>And by allowance, you mean the pay you get as my assistant?” </em></p><p><em>“Yup.”</em> Alphonse popped the p at the end, making Edward shake his head in fond exasperation before setting his attention back on the students. Who were staring at the two of them expectantly? </p><p>“<em>I’ll see, </em>now!” the students snapped to attention as Edward switched back to English and clapped his mismatched hands together. “Everyone put everything away! We are going on a trip to the front lawn!” the students started to mummer amongst themselves, wondering why they had to go to the front lawn during class time. Harry and Ron turned to look at Hermione to see if she had an answer. And when she didn’t, Harry was the first one to question it.  </p><p>“Professor, why are we going to the front lawn?” oh how the students did not like that devious smile that appeared on the brother's face. The similarities between the two of them only making it all worse. </p><p>“Well, we are going to teach the lot of you almost the same way we were taught.” </p><p>“And,” Alphonse interjected, making the student's stomach sink a little bit lower, they did not like that tone in his voice. “That means that all of you will be learning alchemy while doing some physical exercise.” The reaction was immediate, many of the students were surprised at the news of physical activity, and a lot of them were not exactly happy about it. </p><p>“What does that have to do with alchemy?!” </p><p>“How does this even pertain to alchemy?!” </p><p>“Are you mad?!” </p><p>They let the students rage for a little bit longer. Alphonse taking the chance to turn to his brother and whisper ‘raise’ a few times in an effort to convince Edward to give him a raise. Edward sighed heavily as his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Alphonse was practically amazed to see the level of patience his brother was showing. </p><p>“Oh, for the love of- SHUT UP!” Ah, there was the temper his brother was famous for. The students quickly quieted down as they recognized the anger and knew that the next step could possibly be murder. Will it? Who knows? It depends on the mood of their young professor, the same professor that started to scold them. </p><p>“Stop being a bunch of bubble blowing little bitches,” the muggle-born students were taken aback at his language but didn’t say anything. Alphonse just held back a snort at the familiar insult, it was an insult that Havoc uses under his breath. It was pure luck that the brothers even heard it in the first place and it was quite unfortunate for everyone else that Edward decided to adopt the saying. </p><p>“Unless you want to be trained like we were when I was nine, shut up! Keep in mind that our teacher ditched us on a deserted island for a month before kicking our asses on the daily.” The students fell silent and exchanged looks. Doubt could be seen in their eyes. They knew that their professors were smart, crazy smart, but they doubted that they had gone through that. </p><p>“Oh no, he’s not exaggerating, we have some scars to prove it. We would invite our teacher but she would probably beat us for trying to teach alchemy.” Alphonse chuckled at that and Edward joined him. They kept on chuckling for a few more seconds before the two of them broke out into a sweat. </p><p>“<em>oh god, she would kick our asses.” </em></p><p>
  <em>“I don’t want to die yet, brother.”</em>
</p><p><em> “As long as she doesn’t find out, everything will be fine.” </em>The students stared with confused looks on their faces as their teachers experienced a sudden bout of depression mixed with fear. But it didn’t take long for them to come out of the funk. Only for them to tell the students to hurry up and get to the front lawn. And based on the way that the brothers were scheming behind the students, they did not have a good feeling. </p>
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<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Time For a Call</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been a few weeks since the alchemy class has gone into full swing and the students are still struggling to adjust to the exercise regimen and the amount of information that is being forced into their heads while doing the exercise. A few more decrees had been passed in those few weeks, but they were so stupid, that the brothers couldn’t even find a way to mess with them without making themselves look like fools. But other than that, everyone thing has been somewhat normal  </p><p>“My legs.”</p><p> “I can’t feel my arms.” </p><p>“Oh, I’m going to feel this tomorrow.” Everyone watched the alchemy students as they dragged their feet into the great hall. Their black robes were dirtied with dirt and their cheeks were red with the cold. Yet despite that, they were all sweaty and exhausted. All of the students dragged their bodies to their tables, only to slump over as soon as they sat down. Harry, Ron, Hermione, the twins, and everyone else from Gryffindor who’s in the alchemy class sat down at the table and did one of two things. They either put their head down on the table with a sigh or took a long drink of water before cursing the Elric name. </p><p>“They’re mad I tell you, mad!” Ron had his head on the table, muttering his curses into the wood. Hermione and Harry rolled their eyes at their friend's dramatics, but couldn’t help but agree that class was tough. They already had a bad feeling when the Elrics told them that they haven’t even started learning the basics of alchemy, but chemistry. Now that exercise was included in it, something that they haven’t done in years, they were going to do a little bit more than struggle. </p><p>“I still can’t believe they were running with us and were still lecturing like we were in class.” They all looked to the doors when they heard the open and saw the Elric brothers enter the hall with big smiles on their faces. Their hair was ruffled from the exercise and they had worked up a light sweat. Their jackets were slung over their arms as they walked towards the teacher's table to take their seats. Some of the students were surprised by the brother's lean and toned body. They were able to tell that Edward was fit, even with his jacket on. With the way his clothes fit him, it was obvious that he didn’t skimp out on exercise. What they weren't expecting, was the younger brother to look the same way. He wore loose but stylish clothes. And now that he was wearing a shirt similar to Edwards along with some tighter sweat pants, they could tell that the sweeter and more polite younger brother, also had a physic to put everyone but his brother to shame. </p><p>“Look at them, they don’t even look tired,” Harry muttered that under his breath as they watched the pair of blonds. They ignored the stares they got from the students and teachers alike. Many of them had their eyes focused on Edwards’s automail, while others were focused on the brother's fit physic. They stared at the metal appendage, the news about his arm spread quickly around the school, but many of them were taking it with a grain of salt. This was the first time anyone outside of the alchemy class has seen it.  </p><p>“<em>It felt so good to exercise.” </em>Edward groaned with a pleased look on his face. Alphonse snorted at what his brother said. They both sat down at the table and started to serve themselves. </p><p>“<em>And just what do you call our morning spars?” </em>Edward took a long drink of water and finished with a sigh. </p><p>“<em>Fine, it feels nice to run without being chased.” </em>Alphonse started to laugh quietly at that, remembering that the last time the pair had to run, was when they pissed off a mama bear when they were walking through the woods on a mission. </p><p>“<em>Well, you do have a point. How lo-“ </em></p><p><em>“Ouch!” </em>Edward dropped the fork as he felt a sudden pain in his automail port. Edward tenderly tried to extend the fingers in his right hand before feeling another twinge of pain.  </p><p>“Is there something wrong?” Snape was leaning closer to Edward to see what was wrong, also to see the arm he had heard so much about it from his students. Edward looked to him with a frown before holding his metal hand to his chest. </p><p>“Yeah, just some problems with my automail, let me just,” Edward casually popped off the cover of his arm using alchemy and took a peek inside. As his arm was hidden by the table because it was on his lap, no one else noticed. Edward looked inside and frowned at the sight of it. From what he could see, there were a couple of frayed wires, wires that were starting to lose their insulation and some were starting to come loose. Alphonse looked into the arm and rose an eyebrow. </p><p>“I thought you had Winry take a look at it before starting the mission? “ Edward sighed and drooped his head down in defeat. If this was anything else, Edward would just use alchemy to fix it himself but he has learned that it’s best to let Winry fix it and change the wires. The last time he tried to fix it himself, he ended up changing the properties of the wires by accident and almost rendered his arm completely useless. It was only through the grace of Winry and granny that he was able to get back onto the field in less than two days. Although they showed their appreciation through a wrench to his head.</p><p> “Well that was the plan, but that exactly didn’t work out.” He quietly put the cover back onto his arm and let the arm sit on his lap, switching to his left arm to do everything. </p><p>“Aren’t you going to use alchemy to fix it?” Edward shook his head at his fellow professor’s question. </p><p>“Nah, I don’t know enough about automail to fix it myself, I’m going to have to make a request for a service call.” Edward spooned some pie into his mouth. Edward gasped as he realized something. </p><p>“I need to make a service call!” although the other teachers didn’t understand the excitement in his voice in making a service call, Alphonse understood it and started to get excited for the same reason. </p><p>“Yay! Service call!” While everyone else was confused why they were so excited to get a service call, the brothers had sorely missed their small family and Edward missed them even more since again, he didn’t even get the chance to see them before being whisked off for this mission. And it was a happy moment until Alphonse remembered that it actually takes some effort to break a piece of automail. </p><p>“But what did you do for it to break so fast?” Edward choked at his brother’s question and started to cough up the pie.  </p><p>“You had Winry check on it before leaving for your latest mission. And it’s only been a little bit less than two months.” Alphonse pressed into his brother, knowing that automail only needs to be checked twice a year if you took care of it. And considering his history with breaking his automail in some shape, way, or form, Alphonse knew that his brother must have done something reckless. </p><p>“I didn’t do anything, Alphonse!” Edward averted his eyes and if you knew where to look, you would see the faintest sign of a blush on Edwards’s cheeks. And this was the tell-tale sign that Edward had done something. Professor Snape was just watching the interaction between the brothers, somewhat confused but nevertheless entertained. Alphonse pulled Edward's automail arm away from his lap and saw the alchemic marks on the metal. They were arranged in a way that told Alphonse the metal had been punctured by something.  </p><p>“They shot you! Didn’t they?!” Edward sighed heavily at the truth being pushed out into the open. On his last mission, there was a sniper while he was fighting the gang, it was pure chance that he was able to move out of the way fast enough, but his arm had gotten hit and he left the fight with a rifle bullet lodged in his arm. </p><p>“It’s not like I got hit! Besides, I was able to fix it with alchemy.” Alphonse sighed heavily and hit his head against the table a few times. </p><p>“What am I going to do with you?” Edward snorted.</p><p> “You say that like you have a choice.” </p><p>“Perhaps you should do something about your…problem.” The two brothers stopped their bickering and blushed in embarrassment. Alphonse smiled and rubbed the back of his neck while Edward looked away and scratched his cheek. </p><p>“Yeah, I better do that.” Edward stood up from the table, his right arm noticeable laying limply at his side, and walked over to Dumbledore. Who was, unfortunately, sitting right next to Umbridge, so she was going to hear the entire conversation? </p><p>“Hey, old man, I got a problem.” Dumbledore, who was already used to Edward's manner of speaking, didn’t mind the phrase used towards him and instead looked attentively at Edward. </p><p> “Yes, professor Elric?” Edward rolled his eyes at the title. </p><p>“Just call me Ed, anyways, I got a problem with my arm, I’m going to need my mechanic to make a service call.” Edward gestured at his arm for effect. </p><p>“Oh, and what exactly is the problem?” Edward glared at the toad before turning his eyes back to Dumbledore to answer the question that he was no doubt wondering about too. </p><p>“Just some technical problems I can’t fix myself, would it be fine if she came?” </p><p>“How did you lose your arm? What happened exactly?” </p><p>“Oh I think it happened something like this,” Edward grabbed his unresponsive hand and moved the fingers around to where only the middle finger was pointing straight up, a gesture that the magic born and raised community didn’t understand. </p><p>“It happened by not minding your own fucking business.” Umbridge looked appalled at the message, Alphonse just facepalmed and Edward just went along with his day. </p><p>“Anyways, would it be fine?” Dumbledore gave Edward a gentle smile before giving a small nod of his head. </p><p>“Yes, it will be just fine.” Edward smiled widely. </p><p>“Awesome, thanks for everything old man.” He waved goodbye before walking back to his seat. </p><p>“Now let’s just hope that Winry doesn’t kill me.”</p>
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<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Amestrians Guests</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The brothers had woken up late again after a night of research. Not to mention Dumbledore had pulled the two of them into a late-night conversation regarding Winry and her military escort that was coming along. They were going to arrive sometime during dinner. Edward yawned as he walked out of his room. His appearance bringing attention to himself as he walked with the students. His faulty automail made it too uncomfortable for him to have it connected to his body. Thus, the empty space next to his body was kinda hard to not notice. And since he was missing an entire arm, his hair was left loose and free-flowing. Bringing attention to himself even more. But at the moment, Edward did not give a single shit. </p><p>“Alright, class!” Alphonse sighed in resignation as his brother kicked open the door to the classroom (ok maybe he was a little bit excited ) before walking in. leaving Alphonse to use alchemy to fix the fine cracks that he caused in the door. Many of the students gaped at his arm or lack of. </p><p>“I hope you all are ready for some more exercise, everyone to the front lawn, we’re gonna be running again!” the worries about Edward's arm almost completely left and was replaced with groans and moans from the students, complaining about their woes as students that are being forced to exercise. Some of the students were doubting Edward's ability to work out with a single-arm, but were quickly straightened out once they saw their teacher perform a one-armed handstand before getting back onto his feet just to prevent himself from tripping while running. At this point, they were starting to question their teachers' blood status in the sense of being a normal human.  </p><p>“Everyone stop and huddle around!” the students stopped running and were grateful for the break they were given. They listened to the brothers and huddled around, where Edward was drawing a transmutation circle for the ground beneath it. </p><p>“Can anyone tell me what’s the purpose of this circle?” the students watched Edward finish the circle while mulling over the question Alphonse had asked. They had half a mind to say that it was going to manipulate the earth due to something called common sense. But for all they knew, it was for something completely different.</p><p> “This particular section of dirt is rich in iron,” Edward finished the circle and stood up, wiping his hand against his pants. “Based on that information, what do you think this circle is for?” the other students looked at each other, waiting for someone to answer the question. and while they weren’t surprised, they were relieved to see that Hermione was going to answer it. </p><p>“Is it to manipulate the iron?” </p><p>“Yup,” Edward popped the ‘p’ before activating the circle, using alchemy to take all of the iron out of the soil to create a small cube of iron. He held it up for the class to look at. </p><p>“This is what alchemy can do, and with more practice and a few more years, you all will be able to do something like this. “all of their faces lit up at the news of them being able to do the same thing, but they weren’t happy to hear that it was going to take a few years for that to be possible. Edward pocket the iron cube before getting everyone’s attention. </p><p>“Ok, back to running!” the two brothers smiled at the groans they got at the mention of exercise again.  </p>
<hr/><p>“Oh wow.” Winry looked up at the castle in awe, and she wasn’t the only one, Havoc was right next to her, making a similar face. They heard that the castle was big, but they didn’t know it was <em>this</em> big. She was holding her youngest daughter in her arms, with her metal case over her shoulder. Izumi was sleeping in her arms while Yuriy was being held by Havoc. Someone who had grown attached to the little boy. The agreement was that both of them would be able to name at least one child what they wanted. Winry teared up when she found out that Edward wanted to name their son after her father, as a sort of tribute to her father. Edward was just as surprised when he found out that Winry wanted to name their daughter after his teacher, since she was the one that taught Edward how to do alchemy, and although it led him down some questionable roads, it also saved the country. </p><p>“Fullmetal wasn’t kidding when he said that castle was huge. “Mustang was staring up at the castle, surprised by the sheer magnitude. Hawkeye was right next to him, keeping a slightly impassive face while also being surprised at the size of the castle, her brown eyes wide in surprise. </p><p>The four of them stared at the castle for a little bit longer until Mustang brought them out of their stupor.  </p><p>“Ah, it's cold here.” Winry shivered at the temperature and the biting wind that came along with the environment. </p><p>“Did you bring his cold-weather automail?” Winry trailed behind Hawkeye and Mustang, walking next to Havoc. She held up her case while speaking. </p><p>“Yeah, I figured I would bring it along since this place is further up north than Amestris is.” Havoc nodded his head in understanding, happy that the young lady was able to think ahead so their friend wouldn’t suffer while up here in this miserable place.  </p><p>“Hey Havoc,” he perked up at the call of his name, he quickly caught up with Mustang.  </p><p>“Yeah?” they were approaching the entrance of the castle and let out a sigh of relief when they felt their warmth from the castle. </p><p>“I didn’t have the chance to tell the Elric’s that you are back in the military,” the two males in the group had a wide smile go across their face as they realized that they would be able to surprise the two brothers rather well.  </p><p>“Excuse me, sirs.” All of them jumped when they heard a small voice from the right. They were surprised when they saw the small, goblin creature. It’s had big owlish eyes and looked like it was wearing scraps of clothing. </p><p>“Master Dumbledore instructed me to take your belongings to your quarters.” The four of them blinked in surprise before handing over their overnight bags and other belongings. But before the elf could leave, Havoc had a request. </p><p>“Ah, do you think you could take me to the Elrics quarters?” Havoc motioned at the children and himself. “ They haven’t seen the three of us for a while and we want to surprise them.” The elf thought about the request for a little bit before agreeing wholeheartedly. The Elric brothers were some of the nicest people to interact with and have won special places in the elves' hearts.  </p><p>“Of course, please, please, follow me!” The others watched as the elf disappeared along with Havoc and the youngest Elrics, leaving them to finding the great hall by themselves. It didn’t take long for them to find it. And with a smile, Mustang pushed it open.  </p>
<hr/><p>“You should have seen his face! We all started to panic when Miss Gracia went into labor.” Edward elbowed Alphonse in embarrassment. Embarrassed that his brother was telling the panic that was on his face when they were staying at the Hughes family place. </p><p>“Shut up al! you were panicking too! <em>You didn’t even have a face and I could tell you were panicking!” </em>Alphonse blushed at being called out like that and pushed Edward away from him playfully. The other professors were observing their interactions, amused by their actions. The two brothers were so intent on messing with the other one, they didn’t notice the door opening up dramatically. But Edward did notice the sound of his childhood friend calling his name. </p><p>“<em>EDWARD!” </em>Edward jumped at the sound of his wife and turned in fear. He turned just in time for a familiar piece of metal to meet his forehead. Everyone cringed at the sound it made when it met its target and cringed further at the sound of pain that came from the teacher as he fell off the chair and onto the stone floor behind the table.  </p><p>“<em>Winry! What was that for?!” </em>Edward struggled to get off the floor while clutching his head in pain. Alphonse looked towards the door and everyone noticed the way his eyes lit up as he saw the adults enter the room. The school stared at the strangers. They noticed the way the black-haired man carried himself and the way the other blue-clothed adult trailed after them. And they noticed the attractive blond that had an annoyed look on her face. Then the realization dawned on the brothers, especially Edward. </p><p>“<em>Winry!”</em> they both yelled her name at the same time before scrambling to get onto their feet. Everyone was still very confused by the entire situation and were even more confused when the two professors threw themselves over the table, both of them using a lone arm to pivot over the table, only to run up to one of the women and throw themselves at her. They stared, even more, when they saw Edward kiss his lovely wife and realized that the female had the same armband that Edward had. The three of them continued to chatter in their language excitedly while the black-haired man and the two other blondes walked up to the table to speak to Dumbledore.  </p><p>“Ah, General Mustang, how was your trip?” the man, now dubbed as Mustang, gave the man a smirk that made almost everyone’s heartthrob at the sight of his smile. Meanwhile, Umbridge was sputtering as she tried to get her head wrapped around the situation. She wasn’t informed of any foreign visitors or any visitors at all. </p><p>“It was an experience professor, but convenient. This is Captain Hawkeye,” she snapped to attention at the mention of her name and gave the teachers a nod of acknowledgment. “She is my right-hand man, and that is miss Winry Rockbell-Elric, she is Fullmetal’s mechanic and spouse.” Winry, although she didn’t know what they were saying, waved at the teachers while Edward had his arm wrapped around her. Surprising them with her kindness when she had just thrown a wrench at one of the teachers mere minutes ago.  </p><p>“Forgive the brothers for their behavior, Edward wasn’t given the chance to see his wife before he left Amestris.” The great hall was silent at this point, quiet enough for the man to introduce his fellow visitors to the students and teachers themselves. Many of the students felt their heart deflate in disappointment as they realized that their teacher was already a married man. Dumbledore, seeing that there was no need to further introduce the visitors, allowed them to go to their quarters. Mustang smiled at his kindness before turning around to the three, whistling loud enough to get their attention. </p><p>“<em>Fullmetal, time to go,” </em>Mustang motioned towards Edward for Winry<em>. “Madam, you have your hands on him.” </em>The students stared in horror as they watched the innocent face of the blonde girl turn into one of anger (again) before walking forward and surprisingly grabbed the two brothers by the ears before dragging them out of the great hall.</p><p>“<em>Winry! What the fuck!” </em></p><p><em>“Ow! Why are you pulling me along?!” </em>the Amestrians watched in amusement as the two youngest members were dragged out, the wizards were staring in horror as a lone female managed to wrangle some of the most unruly and stubborn professors they have ever had. While Umbridge was, of course, misunderstanding the entire situation. Somehow twisting the situation to think that everyone that had arrived at the school, were the superiors of the brothers and she just might be hoping they will be able to reel the brothers in for her convivence. Little did she know, is that her plans would completely backfire on her.</p>
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<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><strong><em>“</em></strong><em>Who's the cutest?”</em> Havoc was sitting on Edward's bed with Edward's daughter on his lap, completely awake as he played with her. Yuriy was sitting behind Havoc, his small, toddler hands messing with one of the brother's extra tools they kept around for Edward. Havoc blew a raspberry into Izumi's stomach, making her squeal and break into giggles at the feeling.  </p><p><em>“Oh you are, you're the cutest, yes you are!”</em> Havoc had the goofiest smile on his face as he played with the delightful one-year-old. Havoc looked around the room. He could see the small differences between the brothers. The neat bed of Alphonse compared to the slightly more ruffled bed of Edwards. The pile of books piled neatly at the bottom of the bed while Edward had his books stacked under his bed. Although both of the brothers were a little bit messy when it came to leaving their clothes laying around the room. It was obvious that the room was lacking a woman's touch. Namely being the threats of a wrench to a forehead if they didn’t clean up their stuff instead of leaving it around for Winry to clean up.  </p><p><em>“Ow Winry! Ok, I get it already! I didn’t take care of my automail!”</em> Havoc listened to amusement as he could hear the couple coming closer to the room. He could hear the calm chattering of Alphonse, Hawkeye, and Mustang as they followed them. He was bouncing the little girl on his knee at that point, Yuriy still messing with that spare tool.  </p><p><em>“Didn’t take care of it?! You broke it after four months!”</em> Winry kicked open the door and dragged Edward behind her. Edward was a little bit too busy with his pain to notice Havoc and his kids there, the others followed them into the room, closing the door behind them. But that didn’t mean the eldest of Edwards kids didn’t notice their father walking into the room after not being able to see him for two months.  </p><p><em>“Daddy!”</em> Edward perked up at the sound of his son and managed to get out of his wife's grip before running over to his son. </p><p><em>“Yuriy!”</em> Edward gave his son an awkward one-armed hug before kissing his son on the forehead. Yuriy cringed away at the contact of his father’s stubble against his face. </p><p><em>“Your face is itchy!”</em> Edward grinned at his chance before rubbing his cheek against his son's cheek, making the boy squeal at the slightly uncomfortable feeling but still laughed at the situation. Alphonse grabbed Izumi from Havoc and lifted her over his head, making her giggle. </p><p><em>“How long do you think it’s going to take you to fix his automail.”</em> Winry watched the two brothers with a smile, leaning over to answer the general as she did so. </p><p><em>“A couple of days depends, I have to check if his leg is still long enough and if it’s too short, it’s going to take another day or so for me to make adjustments to both of his automail legs since I brought his winter automail too. It might take me at least three days since I’m the only mechanic here.”</em> Mustang nodded in understanding, his chin in the pit of his thumb and forefinger. They had tagged along to issue Edward's yearly assessment but it looks like they were going to be longer than expected.  </p><p><em>“Hey, let me see your notebook.”</em> Edward carried his son on his hip with a raised eyebrow.</p><p>
  <em>“What happened to yours?”  </em>
</p><p><em>“I left mine with Grumman, we’re going to stay here longer than expected.”</em> Edward gestured his head towards his desk, making Mustang walk over there. </p><p><em>“It’s in my jacket, knock yourself out.”</em> Mustang rolled his eyes at his words before strolling over to the desk, giving Hawkeye and Havoc orders as he did so. </p><p>
  <em>“Havoc, Hawkeye, go and find out where our quarters are.” </em>
</p><p><em>“Actually chief, our quarters are just a floor up, the house-elf already put our stuff in there.”</em> Mustang smiled at the news before turning to Edward, who was still playing with his child, he held up the book. </p><p><em>“Hey, I’ll give this back tomorrow, also, you’re having your state assessment as soon as your automail is fixed,”</em> Edward sputtered at the news of his state assessment, he was given no warning to it.  </p><p><em>“Goodnight!”</em> Edward just stared at his superior as he walked out of the room. Hawkeye and Havoc gave the Elric family their goodbyes before following Mustang out of their room.  </p><p><em>“I should have known he was here for a reason.”</em> </p><hr/><p><em>“Daddy.”</em> Yuriy's words were quiet and whispered. He was standing next to Edward as he slept with Winry and Izumi in the bed. Alphonse was in the bed across the room, the sunlight was streaming into the room. Making the time about seven am tops.  </p><p><em>“Psstt,”</em> he poked Edwards cheek, making him grunt and furrow his eyebrows. <em>“Daddy,”</em> Edward groaned as he started to wake up to his eldest child waking him up. He took a deep breath before opening his eyes.</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah?” </em>
</p><p><em>“I’m hungry.”</em> Edward sighed at his son waking him up. He was about two seconds away from telling his son to just and go and get a snack from the kitchen. Until he remembered that he wasn’t at home and was instead was at a school that was in a castle. </p><p><em>“Win,”</em> he nudged Winry with his arm, making her stir.</p><p>
  <em>“Yeah?”  </em>
</p><p><em>“Your kid is hungry.”</em> Winry sighed heavily at Edward's words. </p><p>
  <em>“He’s your kid too.” </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“not until the sun is up.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em> “The sun is up stupid.”  </em>
</p><p><em>“Just get your asses up and get ready, it’s time to wake up anyway.”</em> The three adults groaned at the news that they had to get up, completely ignoring the fact that it was little Alphonse who said that. While the children were awake within minutes and were already bouncing around the room and/or bed, waiting for someone to dress them so they could go zooming around the castle. It didn’t take long for them to get out of bed and get ready. This time, Alphonse took the time to put Edward's hair into his usual braid. Edward let himself be dragged along as his son took them to the dining hall. Only redirecting him a few times to make sure that the child wasn’t going to take them to some obscure place. Edward led his family into the dining hall, where some students were already getting their breakfast for the day. Others were rushing to get their work done before they had to go to class, some of them were still catching some last-minute sleep.  </p><p><em>“Papa, look at the ceiling!”</em> the childish voice caught the attention of more than one student. Everyone's jaws dropped when they saw the children. There was no way in hell that those children were not the children of Edward. The little kids had the striking golden hair and eyes of the Elrics. While some of the students were amazed at their professor's young age, education, and family situation, Edward looked up at the ceiling, pretending that he was just as surprised as Yuriy was.  </p><p><em>“Oh wow, I never noticed it like that, that’s pretty cool huh?”</em> Alphonse looked at the scene with a smile. When he first found out that Winry was pregnant, Edward was terrified that he was going to be a terrible father. He was terrified that he was going to leave them alone for too long or that he was going to miss important landmarks with their children's lives or just that he wasn’t going to be able to make them feel loved. But in his opinion, Edward worries too much for his good. The family sat down at the teacher's table, Winry bounced Izumi on her knee while eating. Edward somehow managed to balance Yuriy on his knee while eating. And since his father needed a little bit of help with his lack of an arm. The little boy was feeding his father.  </p><p>“<em>open wide dad!”</em> Edward opened his mouth and let the boy spoon eggs into his mouth. </p><p>“Elric?” Edward looked at Snape with a smile, who was looking at him back with a slightly confused look. He knew who Winry was, but he wasn’t sure who the two children were.  </p><p>“Oh Snape, these are my kids, Yuriy and Izumi,” the two children waved at the mention of their name, “and this is my wife Winry.” Winry gave the man a bright smile at the mention of her name. although they couldn’t understand what they were talking about in their strange language they knew that it was nothing bad based on the tone he was using. Snape was surprised by the children. The man was only 21 years old and he already had two children, he knew that he and his wife were ‘busy’ and didn’t waste any time. Snape noticed the boy motioned towards him to come closer and he did exactly that. </p><p>“Ahhhh,” it was the universal sign of a child wanting someone to open their mouth. Yuriy was holding up sausage to Snape’s mouth. His childlike kindness coming into play. Snape rose an eyebrow and looked up at Edward with a raised eyebrow. </p><p>“There will be hell to pay if you make my kid cry, Snape.” Although Edward said that in a calm tone with a smile on his face, his eyes said a different story. He had the eyes of someone that was willing to kill for their children and Snape realized that if he wanted to stay on good standing with the young man, he was going to have to let the little boy feed him. Reluctantly, Snape opened his mouth and let the little boy stick the sausage into his mouth with a gentleness that someone his age usually wouldn’t be able to have. Snape gave the little boy a small, very small, smile, making Yuriy smile in joy. </p><p>“You’re lucky I like you, Elric.” Edward snorted at his words. </p><p>“I could say the same to you, Snape.” The Amestrians continued their breakfast. They greeted Mustang, Havoc, and Hawkeye when they entered for their breakfast, taking that opportunity to make small talk with each other. Alphonse and Edward were getting caught up with the events that took place back home, whereas Winry and the kids were talking to Hawkeye about their woes of being the one who keeps their male companion in check. </p><p><em>“Ok, so I will take over your position in class while you get your automail fixed</em>.” Edward raised an eyebrow at the finality tone in Mustang's voice, especially since the plan was made without him. </p><p><em>“Don’t I have a say in this?</em>” Mustang stood up from the table as he spoke. </p><p><em>“Nope, alright gang, let's head out, Havoc, you’re with Edward and Winry, Hawkeye, you’re going to teach some little brats with me.”</em> Edward was looking more and more annoyed and scrunched up his nose in annoyance.</p><p>
  <em> “I’m pretty sure I sure have a choice in this.”  </em>
</p><p><em>“Oh,”</em> Edward stiffened up as he felt his wife’s hand land on his shoulder. He turned around to look at his wife and he somehow, angry smile. </p><p>
  <em>“you don’t have a choice in this.”</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. More Alchemy and Automail</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The students streamed into the classroom, many of them noticing the absence of the elder Elric as they walked in and also noticing the extra presence of the visitors, Mustang taking the place of Edward as he stood at the front of the classroom. Hawkeye was standing right behind Mustang with her usual stoniness. The students eyed the two new visitors before sitting down at their seats. After Winry had realized that Edward had grown a little bit more, she had taken away his leg to make some adjustments and since she didn’t bring a spare, he was kinda stuck in his room, playing with his children quietly while his wife did her magic. Once everyone was settled, Alphonse started. </p><p>“Well, I’m sure everyone has noticed our visitors,” he motioned towards the pair, getting a nod from the class.  </p><p>“Well, you guys are in for a treat today,” Alphonse made a motion for Mustang to take the stage, which he did. </p><p>“My name is General Mustang, otherwise known as the State Alchemist, The Flame Alchemist,” everyone perked up at the news of a third alchemist being in the school, “And this is Captain Riza Hawkeye, and she is my right-hand man. I will be taking over for Fullmetal today.” Mustang ended and noticed that some of the students were itching to ask some questions and get their curiosity quenched. Mustang gave the younger Elric a look, making him take over for the class. </p><p>“I know you have some questions for the General but we will answer them at the end of the class.” The class visibly deflated at that but ultimately accepted it. Alphonse smiled at their acceptance. </p><p>“now, back on track, last class, we were talking about the manipulation of iron…” Mustang and Hawkeye took a seat as Alphonse continued the talk of iron manipulation, the both of them not knowing what they were talking about as one wasn’t an alchemist, and the other focused on fire alchemy. The class would occasionally take a glance at the soldiers, wondering when they were going to teach the class like the man he said he would.  </p><p>“Now that we have about 20 minutes left, general Mustang is going to explain the alchemy he uses and answer any questions you have.” Alphonse stepped back, letting Mustang step up to answer the questions the students were aching to get answered. Alphonse took the chance to hang back with Hawkeye, making small talk with her. Mustang called on a student. </p><p>“What’s a state alchemist?” Mustang blinked in surprise, he had thought Edward told the students that he was part of the military. </p><p>“A state alchemist is a branch in our military. You take a test and if you pass it, you become a state alchemist. That is how Fullmetal, er, Edward became a state alchemist when he was younger. Every state alchemist is given a name based on their discipline. I focus on fire alchemy, hence the name ‘Flame.’ Your teacher has knowledge of almost every alchemic field but primarily focuses on earth and metal, hence the name ‘Fullmetal’” The students nodded in understanding and it didn’t take long for another hand to shoot up into the air. </p><p>“Can you show us your alchemy?” </p><p>“Alright,” Mustang pulled on a single glove as he agreed to it the request, “But do not expect me to teach you my alchemy, I intend this art to die with me.” Some of the students deflated in disappointment before perking up once again when Mustang snapped. An elegant, but a controlled ribbon of flame went throughout the room. Delicately weaving above the heads of the students and giving them a little show before snuffing out. The students chattered with each other at the show of alchemy. Mustang smirked at his display and put the glove back into his pocket. Mustang cleared his throat to get the attention of the students again. </p><p>“Every year as state alchemists, the alchemist needs to have a yearly assessment to determine if they are to continue to be a state alchemist, “some of the students frowned in confusion at the information, not understanding the point he was trying to make. While some of the other students were somewhat starting to catch on. </p><p>“Thus, in about a week or so, per the permission of your teachers,” Mustang gestured towards Alphonse, who gave them a smile of approval. “You will be allowed to observe Fullmetal’s yearly assessment,” and the students didn’t look impressed, not until Mustang continued. </p><p>“Furthermore, since your teacher is a field agent, that will mean I will have to assess his combat ability with his alchemy.” And that was when the students got excited. Their faces lit up with smiles and started to ask questions, questions that Mustang left to the flustered Alphonse as he walked out of the room.  </p><p>“I wonder how Fullmetal is doing.” </p>
<hr/><p>Winry looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. She was happy that her family was being quiet by taking a nap together, but she wouldn’t mind if Edward learned how not to snore in his sleep. She turned back to her work. Winry had long learned that it is best to have a little bit more than an inch of extra wire in automail when it belongs to someone under the age of 25. It makes the job much easier since Winry didn’t have to recreate the wire connections, now she just has to transfer the wire set up to a slightly bigger frame. And since she had Edward on hand, she just had to take out everything, tell Edward to extend the metal frame by an inch or two with his alchemy, and then put everything back. And although it saved a lot of time, it took a really fucking long time to reinstall the wire set up. She had to make sure that installed everything in the proper places and to make sure that the wires weren’t going to come loose or anything. Add onto her doing the same process for four limbs in total, it was going to take her a while to get everything done. She stretched, her hands going over her head as she let out a huge sigh. She rested her head on her arm, her other hand fingering the armband that was on her left arm. She pulled it off and looked at the craftsmanship. </p><p>In the light of the couple using their hands in everything, they realized that a traditional pair of wedding bands would be pretty inconvenient. They were just about stumped when Edward complained about his problem to Alphonse, and scar overheard the problem and gave them the solution. Scar had explained that the armband was used as a form of wedding ring in his culture. But that the bands were usually hidden under their clothes to protect them from the harsh sun. Edward practically jumped in joy when he realized that they could use armbands. So, through some very late nights at Mustang’s office, the only place where he could work on the armbands without Winry finding out, Edward had created these beautiful armbands. Through the minimal use of alchemy, he had created these intertwining pieces of gold and steel with jewels in it. Edward had given the Ishvalen culture some acknowledgment by carving some tribal markings into the band. She had to admit, it was worth the wait.  </p><p>Winry perked up when she heard someone knock on the door. She stood up and wiped her hands on her overalls and pocketed her gloves into her pocket before opening up the door. She blinked in surprise when she saw three teenagers standing outside the door. One of them had glasses with black messy hair, the other one was a tall and lanky red-headed boy, and the last one was a girl with bushy hair. Otherwise known as harry, Ron, and Hermione. </p><p>“<em>Can I help you?” </em>the three students exchanged glances, they had no idea what the woman just said.  </p><p>“Erm, could we speak to professor Elric?” the only thing that Winry understood was the girl saying her last name. she looked back towards Edward and pointed at him with a tilt to her head, a silent question. The others looked into the room and looked at the bed she was pointing to. They had no idea what she was talking about and just let themselves be corralled into the room.  </p><p>“<em>Ed, get up, some kids are here to see you.” </em>Edward stirred and turned over in his bed to look at his wife, the others stiffened up as they realized that that was what the woman meant when she pointed at the bed. </p><p>“<em>Tell them to go away, I’m sleeping.”  </em></p><p><em>“They’re already in the room stupid.” </em>Edward sat up straight in his bed and looked at the students that were standing awkwardly by the door before turning to Winry. </p><p>“<em>Winry!” </em>Winry shrugged her shoulders before sitting back down at the desk to continue working on the automail. Edward sighed heavily and ran his hand down his face.  </p><p>“Alright,” Edward scratched the back of his head and smoothed down his hair after it, “What do you need?” his words were quiet as he tried to avoid waking his sleeping children. The students looked uncomfortable by the fact that Edward was woken up by them. They all looked at each other before Hermione spoke up. It would be a little bit weird to say that they just wanted to see how their professor was doing so she just went with the second reason.  </p><p>“We wanted to know if you are going to be able to do the DA meeting today?” Edward realized that they had a good point. He wasn’t too sure when his automail leg was going to be ready. </p><p>“<em>Hey Winry?” </em>she didn’t look up from her work as she answered him.</p><p><em>“Your leg will be ready by tomorrow morning, it will take me another day to do your arm and then another two days to get your second set of automail ready. You’re lucky we’re married or there would be more than two zeros on your bill. “</em>Edward cringed at the time it was going to take and felt bad for asking his wife to make that. He turned back to the students with a shrug of his shoulders. </p><p>“can’t, Alphonse is still going though, so I’m sure you can make do with him.” The three students nodded in understanding before awkwardly leaving the room. Edward plopped down onto his bed with a sigh that puffed his cheeks as it left his mouth. God, he can’t wait until he’s able to leave his room again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And thats the end of this unfinished work</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Threats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Edward winced as he walked down the hallways, stretching his right shoulder as he walked. Winry had finally finished on his automail and practically pinned him down to put them on before laying down to go to sleep herself. She at least had enough sense to put the children in the other room while putting on the limbs. And although they were curious, they were currently getting some quality snuggling with their mother. He yawned deeply into his hand, it was a little bit too early for this in his opinion, but at this point, he was just happy to be able to leave his room. </p><p>He walked slowly down the halls, not in any particular hurry. It was already too late to go and join Alphonse in their morning workout, he should be on his way back already. But it was also too early for a decent number of students to be awake and eating in the great hall. So, it was relatively empty when he walked in, only the teachers being in there. </p><p>Edward sat down next to Snape with a sigh, leaning over for an apple before slouching back into his seat.</p><p>“Hey, Snape.” </p><p>“Elric, and your family?” </p><p>“They're still asleep, and Alphonse should be taking a shower right about now. Did I miss anything last night?” Snape hummed while taking a bite out of his eggs. </p><p>“Some of my students were playing dirty during the match, but in her usual sense of justice, Umbridge banned Potter and the Weasley twins from Quidditch for the rest of their academic career. “the lack of reaction from Snape made Edward choke on his eggs, </p><p>“D-don’t!” Edward hit his chest as he tried to dislodge the egg that he had inhaled, a few good coughs being enough for him to cough it up,” Don’t you think you should be a little bit more concerned?!” Snape shrugged his shoulders before taking a long drink from his goblet. </p><p>“Trust me, Elric, I would love to punish Mr. Malfoy and his goons for displaying such deplorable conduct, but <em> Umbitch </em>,” If it wasn’t for the situation, Edward would have been so proud that Snape had realized that it was an insult” as you would say, had already threatened to report me to the ministry of being a follower of the Dark Lord if I punished my students. so, my hands are tied behind my back.” Edward sighed heavily.</p><p>“God, I hate that lady…also, do you even know what <em>Umbitch </em>even means?” he got a sly smile in return.  </p><p>“I wouldn't use it if I didn’t know what it meant Elric.” Edward couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face. </p><hr/><p>Edward walked into the classroom with a small scowl on his face, slouching as he walked with his hands in his pockets, Alphonse, Mustang, and Hawkeye right behind them.  </p><p>“Alright guys, everyone get up,” all of the students exchanged glances before hesitantly getting up from their seats, all of them eyeing the Amestrian soldiers that were lingering by the doorway,” I'm sure Alphonse and Mustang already told you, but today I will be having my yearly assessment for my state alchemist title, and since I am also a combatant unit, you guys will be able to see how you can use alchemy in a fighting situation. “the class exploded into excited chattering, all of them excited to see their teacher use alchemy in a fight. Edward groaned at their reaction and when he looked over at Alphonse, he just got a smile and shrugged shoulders.  </p><p>“Before you guys get excited,” Alphonse's words cut through their chattering, all of them quieting down,” Keep in mind that Edward and General Mustang have been practicing alchemy for over ten years. It will be a long time before any of you will be able to use your alchemy in a combat situation, in the event you continue your studies. Not to mention, some fields of alchemy are not fit for fighting.” Edward almost started laughing when he saw how their faces fell, some of them pouting at the news. But he contained himself. </p><p>“Alright guys, time for me to go and kick this bastard's ass.” </p><p>“Ahem,” and that was when Edward was about two seconds from stabbing a certain toad looking ho.  </p><p>They all turned to look at the doorway, to see that Umbridge had squirmed her way through Mustang, Hawkeye, and havoc to stand in the classroom, a smug look on her face.  </p><p>“I'm sorry, but as the high inquisitor, I will not allow this…assessment to take place.” Edward just stared at her before waving her off, much to her displeasure.  </p><p>“Uh-huh, still don’t give a single shit, come on class, let's go and have some fun.” Edward walked past Umbridge, resisting the urge to shoulder check her in the process. All of the students hesitated in following him out, even though he was part of the Amestrian military, Umbridge was still above him when it came to the hierarchy in the school. </p><p>She must have been prepared for his reaction, as the only thing she did was smile, and walk further into the classroom, going straight for the Elrics desk. </p><p>“Stay here children,” Edward was just about to walk out the door when she said that, stopping when she told his students to stay. Edward turned around slowly to look at her, his eyes already twitching in anger at the sight of the woman picking at his desk,” While your ‘teacher’,” oh just the way she said it mockingly made everyone flinch, harry and his friends noticing the way both Edward and Alphonse stood to attention in the doorway, their eyes darkening with every word she said. </p><p>“Takes his assessment, I will be taking care of the class in the time being.” </p><p>“Like hell, you will!” Edward stomped back to her, his finger in her face. </p><p>“You, get out right now! Alphonse! Stay here and teach the class since this <em>bitch </em>can’t mind her own fucking business.” Edward towered over her, her sweet smile pissing him off as she innocently looked up at him, challenging him as she spoke. </p><p>“As the high inquisitor, I have the power to overrule your word. Mr. Elric, please leave the room with your elder brother.” Edward almost snarled out his words. </p><p>“And as Colonel Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist as well as Alphonse's legal guardian, <em>I </em>am the only person Alphonse has to listen to,” Edward's voice was low, he was so pissed, even his level of vocabulary was changing.</p><p>“Furthermore, since he is a member of the Amestrian military and <em>my </em>personal assistant, <em>you </em>do not have the right to dictate him as one of the staff members.” Mustang and the other officers were still standing in the doorway, not interested in the confrontation because they knew that the Elric brothers would be able to handle it just fine. All of the students watched from their seats, their breath caught in their throats as the entire scene played out. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged glances, wondering how this was going to end. </p><p>“That may be true, however,” a sickening smile spread across her face,” That does not apply to civilians. Now does it?”</p><p>It didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was inferring. </p><p>Every single student in that room knew for a fact, that the only Amestrian Civilians in the school at the moment. </p><p>Would be the children and wife of Edward Elric. </p><p>Edward realized this and his brother had to get between the two of them and push Edward back just so he wouldn’t become physical with the older lady. He was snarling out his words, speaking in his native language as Alphonse, who looked just as furious, talked him down and further separated the two. Mustang, Hawkeye, and Havoc immediately stood at attention once they heard the hidden threat, Havoc helped Alphonse with his brother, but Edward did not calm down until Hawkeye gave him a stern look. </p><p>“Excuse me, madam,” Mustang finally cut in, his body posture as relaxed as it could be in light of one of his subordinates being threatened. So yeah.</p><p>He was pissed.</p><p>“but might I remind you that Amestris does not take lightly to threats,” although his voice was at a moderate level, he might as well be screaming with how quiet it was in the classroom,” Furthermore, along with the Elric brothers being the top alchemists within Amestris, their family are the only remaining descendants from an ancient civilization, making them all the more important.” That gave the brothers some pitying looks, but they didn’t care since Mustang, although was right about them being some of the last Xertian descendants, was wrong about them being important. </p><p>“I will be reporting this to our Führer and the headmaster. Lastly,” Mustang took out a written note and handed it over to Umbridge. And whatever she saw on the note made her scowl and scrunch up her nose in disgust.</p><p>“We have written permission Professor Dumbledore to carry out Fullmetal’s examination. “Umbridge let out a huff of air, frustrated but trying her nest to hide it. Not that it worked. </p><p>“I see…well- “</p><p>“Get out.” Everyone looked at the brothers and was surprised when it was Edward who was being quiet. Umbridge, despite her nasty attitude, was taken aback. </p><p>“Excuse me?”</p><p>“Get out,” Alphonse was glaring at her, looking remarkably like Edward,” And if you <em>ever</em> threaten my family again, I know some serial killers who would l<em>ove</em> to teach me a few things.” Umbridge paled at his words but still tried her best to show her authoritative position. </p><p>“I-is tha- “</p><p>“Get out!” Alphonse let go of Edward and started to scream at her. “Get OUT!” This time, Edward had to grab Alphonse (not that he wanted to) so he wouldn’t attack the woman. With a strangled squeak, she ran from the classroom, squeezing her way past the Amestrian soldiers. </p><p>They all just stared at Alphonse, who was panting heavily as the red slowly leached away from his face. Alphonse took one more deep breath, ran his hands through his hair before looking at the students with a smile.</p><p>“So, let’s go?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Its always the quiet ones that you have to be scared of 😂</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Alchemist Examination</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Havoc, I’m assigning you to Fullmetal’s family, stay with them at all times and raise hell if something happens to them.” </em>
</p><p><em>“Got it</em>.” Havoc did a half-assed salute before rushing off, making his way to the Elric quarters where he would watch over them. He turned to Hawkeye. </p><p>
  <em>“As soon as we are done with Fullmetal’s assessment, make a report to Grumman on what Umbridge just did.” </em>
</p><p><em>“Yes sir</em>.” Hawkeye nodded in agreement, still looking forward as Edward and Alphonse led the children to the examination grounds. Edward keeping a grounding hand on Alphonse's shoulder as the younger brother calmed down. The way he clenched and unclenched his fists let everyone know that he was still furious.</p><p>“<em> Hey, I know you’re pissed, I am too, but you can’t be saying stuff like that, you gotta keep it to yourself so you won’t be suspected later on.”  </em>Alphonse scoffed at his brothers’ words and rose an eyebrow at him. </p><p>“<em> Sounds like you would be willing to help me.” </em></p><p>
  <em> “Hey, I kicked an immortal’s ass for you, there’s a lot I would do for you. But it would be frowned upon if two teenagers kicked some old ladies’ ass.” </em>
</p><p><em> “I know, we could always sic teacher on her.”  </em>Edward almost stopped in his steps and just stared at his younger brother. </p><p><em> “You want her to find out that we’re teaching?” Alphonse </em> shivered at that and finally let the tension leave his shoulders as the final remnants of anger left. </p><p>“<em> Yeah, you’re right.”  </em>Edward smiled and ruffled Alphonse's hair now that he had calmed down. Which got him a glare as they walked to the quidditch field. That was the only place where the students could observe from an elevated place so they could watch safely. </p><p>The students behind the Elrics relaxed when they realized that Alphonse had calmed down. It was normal to see Edward mad, it happened almost all the time. He got mad when someone wasn’t paying attention when someone was attempting to make a rough sketch of a transmutation circle in their notes. And it was always normal for Alphonse to calm Edward, for him to smack him with a rolled-up piece of paper so he could calm down. So, the students were used to his flares of anger, and although he could still be scary at times, they were used to it. </p><p>But it was different to see the younger brother angry like that. In their months of being with the man, the worst they saw would be Alphonse glaring at Umbridge after she had insulted their knowledge of alchemy. Other than that, Alphonse was always smiling, if not, he still had a polite, content look on his face, never looking upset. </p><p>It was terrifying when they saw the way he was looking at Umbridge after she had threatened his family. Snarling out his words with curled lips, with a glare that would make his brother proud. If anyone had doubted his relation to Edward, their doubts were thrown out the window after they saw the way Alphonse truly lost his temper and threatened the woman.</p><p>They all streamed into the field, all of the students going up the stairs to sit on the bleachers. The students had noticed that they were shorter than usual, but they didn’t complain since they would be able to see the fight better. The remaining Amestrians went to the field, standing in the center of the field. The students started to whisper amongst themselves, making bets on the upcoming fight. </p><p>“Hey, harry, who do you think is going to win? Edward or that Mustang guy?” Ron looking over at the Amestrians, as they went over things that they couldn’t hear. Harry looked over at them too, remembering what Alphonse and Mustang had said. </p><p>“I’m not sure, Alphonse had said something about Edward being one of the top alchemists and martial artist in their country.” </p><p>“Well yeah, but that Mustang guy has to be pretty strong too, he’s a general. What about you Hermione? Hermione?” Hermione was staring intently at the field, only looking away for a few seconds to shut them up. </p><p>“Shh, they’re starting!” they all snapped to attention as Edward started talking. He had taken off his red jacket, leaving him in his usual sleeveless shirt, exposing his arm that glinted in the sunlight. Behind him, Alphonse was quietly talking to Hawkeye, who seemed to be scolding the young man, all while Edward was talking. </p><p>“Alright, guys! We’re going to start now, I’ll be fighting against this bastard,” he motioned towards Mustang, who just sighed at the title he got,” until one of us wins, and then me and Alphonse. Alphonse will be sitting up there, answering any questions you might have during the fight.” Once Edward was done explaining, he gave his brother a nod, which he returned before joining the students on the bleachers. Hawkeye retreated to the sidelines of the field while her superiors walked towards the center of the field. </p><p>Alphonse sat down next to the trio with a sigh, letting the air puff up his cheeks as he let it out before turning to the class. </p><p>“You all pay attention, this will be the only chance you get to see another state alchemist in battle.” All of the students nodded eagerly, not needed to be told twice to stare intently at the fighters. </p><p>“<em> Ready to get your ass kicked old man!”  </em></p><p><em> “Like you’re tall enough pipsqueak!”  </em>Alphonse smiled nervously at the exchange, but before any of the students could ask Alphonse what they had said, the field exploded.</p><p>Edward coughed as he waved away the smoke from his position from behind the stone wall he had created. As per usual, he had already extended the arm plate of his automail to create his usual blade. </p><p>“You ass!” the rush of flames that came towards him made him duck behind it again.” Ok, note to self, shut up.” He waited for a few more seconds before taking off to the right, grateful that the smoke was creating a smokescreen for him. </p><p>The field was silent, save for the students excited chattering and Alphonse answering their questions. The two fighters were silent, both of them using the smoke to hide from each other. Edward, getting annoyed by the smokescreen, used alchemy to create a pillar that put him above the smoke field. The new position let Edward see where Mustang was, his dark blue uniform standing out among the gray smoke. </p><p>Unfortunately, that meant Mustang could see him too. </p><p>A feral grin appeared on Edward's face before he started to extend the platform he was standing on, running towards Mustang as it formed under his feet. Mustang let out several, controlled bursts of flame as he ran along the platform. </p><p>Fearlessly, Edward jumped off of his platform right towards Mustang, knowing full well that Mustang wouldn’t dare hit Edward head-on with his alchemy. And sure enough, he didn’t. </p><p>He landed in a roll and sprang up to his feet, immediately engaging his superior in hand to hand combat. </p><p>“Wow,” Harry watched in amazement as Edward threw a fist at Mustang, who was expertly dodging the mismatched fists while throwing in his shots,” he’s so fast!” the other student nodded in agreement with his words, all of them cringing as Mustang finally landed a punch, only for it to get blocked by Edwards right forearm.</p><p>“Edward is one of the best combat specialists, only a few people can beat him in a fight.” A collective gasp went through the students when Mustang finally pushed Edward back enough for him to use his alchemy. Edward expertly backflipped from him, and when he landed on his feet, he used alchemy to create a stone spear from the ground. The usual gothic embellishments doing nothing to take away from the lethality of the weapon. A gasp went through the students. </p><p>“Isn’t that too much?!”</p><p>“he’s going to hurt him!” </p><p>“Calm down,” Alphonse shushed the students while watching the match, watching as Mustang struggled to defend against the spear before trapping it under his arm and wrestling it away. “Edward has experience with spears, although he knows how to use alchemy in deadlier ways, he has never passed that point. The general will be fine. “all of the students looked at him startled. </p><p>“What could be deadlier than a <em> spear!?”  </em>Alphonse finally looked away from the fight, missing the way Edward used his arm blade to slightly injure Mustang. </p><p>“trust me, you would be surprised just how deadly alchemy can be. Mustang can easily ignite the air in Edward's lungs and make him burn from the inside out. Edward can easily use alchemy to destroy Mustang's limbs.” All of the students looked at him with horrified looks, but Alphonse continued. “All alchemists can kill within a second,” he snapped his fingers to emphasize his point,” what separates the alchemist serial killers and the alchemists would be our moral compass.” Alphonse tapped on his temple as he said that.” Our compassion for others is what makes us different, it's our compassion and moral compass that keeps us from acting on our impulses. That was one of the things that determined if you became our student or not.” The students took that to heart. All of them being silent as they thought about what Alphonse had just told them.</p><p>They thought for a little bit too long. </p><p>“Ha!” Edward was panting heavily as held Mustang at the end of his arm blade,” Finally bet you! You bastard!” even though he was being held at knifepoint, Mustang gave him a smug smile.</p><p>“Are you sure about that?” Mustang pointedly nodded towards his hand, which was holding the broken-off blade of the former spear right up to the side of Edward's neck.</p><p>“Yeah, because I can stab you faster than you can stab me.” Mustang sighed and rolled his eyes as Hawkeye declared the end of the examination. The two of them relaxed before Mustang reached out and ruffled Edward's hair, pushing down the teen's head as he did so. </p><p>“Say whatever you want pipsqueak, Hawkeye just declared this as a tie.” Edward purposely smacked his hand away with his automail. </p><p>“Whatever bastard,” Mustang smirked as Edward refused to go against Hawkeye. They both were somewhat startled when the children started to cheer loudly, reminding them that they still had an audience. </p><p>“That was amazing!”</p><p>“This is better than quidditch!”</p><p>“Can you teach us how to fight!??” the rest of the questions were drowned out by the other kids and their questions. Edward gave them a small gentle smile, that was disturbed when Mustang slowly leaned into his field of vision, a shit-eating grin on his face. Edward scowled and rolled his eyes while pushing away Mustang. An act that made him start laughing. </p><p>“Alright, Alphonse! It's your turn!” Alphonse smiled and started to get up from his seat, only for him to stop, his face narrowing down into a sharp glare. </p><p>“Ahem,” Edward didn’t even turn around.</p><p>“You have got to be kidding me.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. A/N</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>um hey guys, theres no easy way to put this so.</p><p>my dad just died, like a few hours ago. i dont even know what im doing, im just trying to distract myself right now.</p><p>but i probably wont be writing anything any time soon.</p><p>im sorry guys, i dont know when I'll be back.</p><p>     ~Seasilver</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Stupid Conversation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Edward turned around to face Umbridge with a glare. Behind him, Alphonse jumped over the railing of the bleachers and landed on the ground, using his knees to absorb the impact before standing right next to Edward. Mustang and Hawkeye exchanged looks and with a nod of approval, Mustang handed over his borrowed notebook and gave it to Hawkeye. Allowing her to start her informal report to her grandfather, because it was obvious that Umbridge was going to keep on flaunting her power until someone puts her in her place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Edward practically growled out his words as he crossed his arms, Alphonse mimicking his posture except with a glare that would make Teacher and General Armstrong proud. Umbridge smiled at the brothers with a sickly-sweet smile before handing the brothers a piece of parchment paper, one that made her look far too smug for Edward's liking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As you can see, the ministry has prohibited all foreign and muggle weapons on school grounds.” Edward looked down at the paper, seeing that the paper said just that. He certainly wasn’t expecting that to happen. But there was no way in hell he was going to let a bunch of wizards handle Hawkeyes gift and the knives Gracia had given Edward in Hughes's name. He’ll just have Winry take them back home, if worse comes to worst, Edward still has years of skills and his alchemy to defend himself. It wasn’t a big deal anyway, he hasn’t used them once at Hogwarts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine, my wife will take my gear back home.” Edward held out the paper for her to take back. This was certainly much easier than he thought it was going to be. He was expecting for some curses to be exchanged along with some anger and exasperation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The minister has prohibited </span>
  <em>
    <span>all </span>
  </em>
  <span>foreign weapons.” Edward and Alphonse exchanged looks, between the two of them, Edward was the only one who carried weapons with him, and their friends were going to take everything back with them anyway. Edward sighed and rolled his eyes, internally smirking when Umbridge tightened her expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen, just spit it out, it’s obvious that you’re being delusional again. “his    </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will have to send your prosthetic as well, you have shown that it has the capabilities to be a deadly weapon. “he didn’t even know what to say, Edward just stared at her as he tried to process what he just said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“you want me, a person who only has one arm, to send my automail back because it can be used as a weapon?” Umbridge smiled as Edward got the message. Alphonse and the other soldiers just stared at her, amazed at her audacity and stupidity all at the same time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Precisely.” Edward stared at her for a little bit longer before a laugh escaped his lips, that laugh quickly escalated into full-on laughter, he was laughing like someone had gotten dropped kicked in front of him as a prank. The smug look that was on her face quickly turned into a frown. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You! You-” Edward bent over and put his hands on his knees, his entire body trembling as the loud laughter escaped his body. Umbridge scowled at Edward's laughter, all while everyone else was still marveling at her stupidity,” You moron! My god it should be illegal to be so stupid!” Edward stood back up with a sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My automail doesn’t classify as a weapon, I have the civilian’s version, I don’t have to do shit with my arm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nevertheless, you have shown that your prosthetic has destructive capabilities as you have proven in your little…demonstration. Furthermore, it is completely capable to perform alchemy with a single arm, the removal of your prosthetic will not affect your skills.” Edward just stared at her with a raised eyebrow. This had to be the first time someone argued taking away his prosthetic simply because of its dangerous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s not like she’s wrong, it’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>metal fist,</span>
  </em>
  <span> even a simple, well-placed punch can cause damage but it’s still a shitty argument. Not to mention, it's his </span>
  <em>
    <span>arm. </span>
  </em>
  <span>You know, to replace the one </span>
  <em>
    <span>he doesn’t have anymore.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Edward sighed and pinched the skin between his eyebrows,” Listen, I’m not going to argue with you about this, it’s a bad argument, my arm is a civilian’s model, it doesn’t have hidden weapons like the military models do.” Edward waved his hand around as he explained, an annoyed look on his face as he internally wondered why he was having this conversation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t change the fact that it is a weapon and it must go. The absence of your prosthetic will not affect your day to day living.” Edward didn’t even know what to say to that. He couldn’t believe that it was a conversation that he was having, he didn’t even have the energy to argue with her with his usual energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok, using that line of logic, doesn’t that mean that you wizards can live perfectly fine without your wands.” Her nostrils flared at that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That seemed to be the wrong thing to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, we can’t! The use of our wands far outweigh the benefits of a mere muggle contraption!” Alphonse cut in at that, Mustang and Hawkeye were still hanging back to watch what was happening while the students were practically holding each other back so they wouldn’t say anything stupid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is there not Wandless magic? Even then, there are a lot of day to day tasks that you can do yourself, you wizards are just too lazy to do it yourself and would rather use your magic to do it instead.” Edward nodded along with Alphonse's point. There was a lot of stuff that the wizards could do themselves, like cleaning, writing, passing out papers, they just liked to use their wand for everything,” Maybe if we took away your wand, your health would improve.” Edward barely managed to hold in his bark of laughter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Umbridge turned a bright red and started to sputter out her words. Even Mustang and Hawkeye, who were standing behind the woman, had to take a second to compose themselves so they could hide their smiles. Edward just looked over at the still sputtering Umbridge before turning to his class. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on guys, lets go back, </span>
  <em>
    <span>bitchy mcbitchison, </span>
  </em>
  <span>my wife will take back my knifes and gun when she goes back home. And NO, I’m not sending my arm back with her.” Edward motioned for his students to follow, some of them followed him without a question, such as Harry, Ron, and surprisingly, Neville. The others were a little bit hesitant but followed Edward without a second thought when Alphonse gave them a reassuring nod and started to walk with his brother. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“P-P-Professor Elric!” Edward nearly rolled his eyes,” As high inquisitor, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>must </span>
  </em>
  <span>obey to me!!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen lady,” Edward turned around while propping his hand onto his hip,” I barely listen to this moron and he’s my general. What makes you think I’m going to listen to some senile old lady?” Mustang didn’t say anything, he just watched quietly while nodding along with Edward. It's not like the flame alchemist could ever wrangle Edward into submission. In fact, the only people who can do that would have to be his wife, Teacher, and Major General Armstrong, all of who were terrifying once they were ticked off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, you can go and fuck yourself, I’m not going to listen to you.” Edward started walking back to the castle again, making sure that he was between Umbridge and his students as they did so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If he didn’t let a god-wannabe dictate his life, there’s no way he’s going to let some lady do it. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Well first off, I would like to thank everyone for their understanding. My dad had passed away all of a sudden and we definitely weren't planning for it.</p><p>Someone suggested that I tell a story of my dad so I will</p><p>I would love to tell you guys his name, but his name is so unique, you would easily be able to find me and my family. Right now, my dad and my older brother are the only people who have that name probably in the entire world.</p><p>The most I can say is that his first name is a combination of Absalom and Misael. But anyways, my parents had a total of five kids together. They got married when they were about 21 and have been married since. I have two older brothers, 23 and 19, im the oldest daughter at 17, almost 18, and I have a little brother, whose 16, and a little sister, whose 13. And we all come from my parents, so yeah, my parents were BUSY.</p><p>My dad, worked his ass off for us, he ruined his knees in the process, but he still did it for us. He did have some problems, as every human did, but he was still a good man. It was unfortunate that he died when he was 45, but he will continue to live on in my memories and through myself and my 4 other siblings. And I like to think that someone isnt truly dead until they are forgotten, and I will definetly remember him for the rest of my life. Everything he taught me will continue to live on in me and my siblings and we will most likely pass down those teachings to other people throughout our lives.</p><p>but anyways, my favorite memory of my dad was when my older brother, smacked my dads freshly shaved head and said "I like yo cut G." the sound the smack made was so funny that we all started laughing, much to the annoyance of my dad.</p><p>another story would be the time I was taking a shower, and my little brother tried to throw water over me. only problem was that he used a glass jar to throw the water, so guess what happened when he threw the water.</p><p>LITTLE HO DROPPED THE JAR INTO THE SHOWER AND IT BROKE!!</p><p>as you can imagine, I was pissed, but I was more upset that my dad just said "no harm no foul" as he laughed his ass off. i had to finish my shower wearing crocs &gt;:(</p><p>my belief that my mother raised us with really helped a lot, we believe that when someone dies, they just die, their soul doesnt go anywhere, it dies with the person. So that helped a lot, not to mention, its accurate to say that my dad is just vibing at the moment.</p><p>But thats all for tonight, thank you for your support everyone! Updates will be a little bit slower as you can imagine that is kinda busy at the moment. I have to focus on my upcoming ap tests and my high school graduation.</p><p>Also! if anyone has a good idea on what decent job i can get with an multidisciplinary associates degree with a focus in the medical field, that would be greatly appreciated, I already have a job but im going to need a better one to support myself so my mom wont have too. 🙏<br/>just to clarify, I do have an associates at 17, im in a program where i graduate high school with one.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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